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CAPT. JOHN SMITH; 



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GEORGE CANNING HILL 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY HILL AND LIBBY. 

18 5 8. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

HILL AND LIB BY, 

3n the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 



ELECTROTTPED BY HOBART A^O K0BBIN3, BOSTOK. 



PRtNTEU BT 
CEORGE S. K\XI> & AVEKY. 



PREFACE, 



The author has designed the present series cf Biogra- 
phies more particularly for the young. And, in pursuing 
his original plan along to its termination, he has set 
before himself the following objects, to which he invites 
the reader's attention : 

To furnish from the pages of the world's history a few 
examples of true manhood, lofty purpose, and persevermg 
effort, such as may be safely held up cither for the admi- 
ration or emulation of the youth of the present day ; 

To clear away, in his treatment of these subjects, what- 
ever mistiness and mustiness may have accumulated with 
time about them, presenting to the mental vision fresh 
and living pictures, that shall seem to be clothed with 
naturalness, and energy, and vitality; 

To offer no less instruction to the minds, than pleasure 
to the imaginations of the many for whom he has taken it 
in hand to write ; 

And, more especially, perhaps, to familiarize the youth 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

of our day with those striking and manly characters, that 
have long ago made their mark, deep and lasting, on the 
history and fortunes of the American Continent. 

The deeds of these men, it is true, are to be found 
abundantly recorded in Histories; but they lie so scat- 
tered along their ten thousand pages, and are so inter- 
mixed with the voluminous records of other matters, as to 
be practically out of the reach of the younger portion of 
readers, and so of the very ones for whom this series has 
been undertaken. These want only pictures of actual 
life ; and, if the author shall, in any due degree, succeed 
even in sketching interesting outlines^ he will feel that he 
is answering the very purpose that has long lain unper- 
formed within his heart. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 
HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 9 

CHAPTER II. 

EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS, 81 

CHAPTER III. 

SOLD INTO SLAVERY, 53 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN, 78 

CHAPTER V. 

LIFE IN THE COLONY, 106 

CHAPTER VI. 

CAPTIVITY, 121 

CHAPTER VII. 

POCAHONTAS, 138 

CHAPTER VIII. 

JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN, 157 



VIII CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGB 
SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES, 183 

CHAPTER X. 

THE HAND OF THE MASTER, 207 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD, 227 

CHAPTER XII. 

LATER EXPERIENCES, 247 

CHAPTER XIII. 

POCAHONTAS A WIFE 271 



CAPT. JOHN SMITH 



CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

THERE are few romances written, that con- 
tain more interesting or exciting inci- 
dents than the life of Captain John Smith. 
Works of fiction reach the feehngs chiefly 
through the medium of the imagination; but 
the actual facts of a biography appeal directly 
to the heart. 

John Smith, who is truly called the founder 
of Yirginia, was born in Lincolnshire, England, 
in a town called Willoughby, during the year 
1579. Though he might easily have received 
far better instruction in his youth than he did, 
he had no one to blame for the deficiency but 
himself Such education as the free schools in 
the vicinity ofiered was quite enough to prepare 



10 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

him to act intelligently in whatever situation he 
might afterwards be thrown ; but his ardent 
temper and uncontrollable impulses were always 
very serious obstacles in the way of his improve- 
ment. Even at so early an age as thirteen^ so 
adventurous and daring had his spirit become, 
he sold his books and satchel for funds with 
which to get ready to go to sea. The sudden 
death of his father, however, for the time pre- 
vented him. Before this event, it appears, he 
had likewise lost his mother. What little prop- 
erty his father left immediately fell to him, 
though he was obliged to be placed, with his 
money, in the care of guardians till he should 
come of age. Those guardians, however, as such 
persons often do, proved unfaithful to the trust 
reposed in them, and, knowing his desire for 
roving and adventure, secretly approved of the 
course he was so anxious to pursue. Though 
they allowed him very little money, — probably 
keeping a sharp look-out for themselves in re- 
gard to that, — they nevertheless gave him great 
personal liberty, rarely offering to interfere with 
any wandering whim that happened to seize him. 
Had they been a little more liberal in giving 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 11 

him money, it is not likely that he would have 
stood in the way of their dishonest projects 
much longer ; but, being as destitute as he was, 
he knew that he could ill afford to venture very 
far out of their reach without a more adequate 
supply. So he remained for a time where he was. 
At last, however, they resolved to apprentice 
him out with a merchant in Lynn, a man engaged 
very extensively in traffic, and with whom the 
uneasy youth might have grown in time to be a 
prosperous man. But there was another mission 
in the world for young John Smith. He was not 
destined to the drudgery of a store, and the com- 
paratively trifling employments of one whose 
duty it is to stand behind a counter and wait 
upon coming customers ,* it was reserved for him 
yet to establish a far-off colony, to pave the way 
for future generations in a hitherto unexplored 
and trackless wilderness, and to lay the founda- 
tions of a nation that was to spread in an incal- 
culably short time from , the shores of one vast 
ocean to the other. 

With his present employer he remained but a 
short time, his thoughts brooding continually 
over the brilliant and indescribable pictures that 



12 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

lay spread out on tlie canvas of his future. Of 
trade, and its many weary accompaniments, he 
seemed to have got quite enough at an early day 
after entering on his apprenticeship. He formed 
the resolution to leave his employer and master 
altogether ; and it is noticeable, too, that his 
guardians were well advised of his determination 
long before he undertook to carry it into effect. 
Indeed, with the few shillings which they had 
allowed him to retain in his pocket, it is probable 
that he ran away from the merchant immediately 
to them again, and demanded sufficient additional 
funds to enable him to realize his early dreams 
of the sea. Eager to be finally rid of him, the}^ 
humored his request, and he very soon found a 
place as page, or travelling servant, to the young- 
sons of Lord Willoughby, who were then about 
to make the customary tour of the continent. 

They all went to France together. Ho con- 
trolled his vagrant propensities sufficiently to re- 
main with them there for some five or six weeks, 
and then begged to be dismissed from their ser- 
vice altogether. They gave him a liberal supply 
of money, and let him go, supposing that he 
would be sure to return to his friends again. 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 13 

But this he had no mmd to do. Ho had had 
quite enough of such friends ; and so, with his 
money, he made tlxe best of his way to Paris, 
without companion or adviser. 

At this time he was about fifteen years old ; 
and, for a boy of fifteen, he certainly showed a 
rare courage and self-reliance that would do no 
discredit to a person of twice his years. While 
he was in Paris he fell in with a gentleman named 
Hume, a native of Scotland, who conceived a 
great liking to our young hero, and proposed to 
send him with letters of introduction to his own 
friends at home. He also filled his purse, and 
generously supplied all his wants. It was the 
gentleman's wish to have the youth trained to 
be a courtier of King James, then living in 
Scotland, but destined soon to succeed Elizabeth 
on the throne of England. He liked the lad's 
spirit and intelligence, and felt sure that, even at 
that age, he promised uncommon things. And 
his after life showed how accurate was the judg- 
ment of his Scottish friend. 

Undoubtedly Smith honestly engaged to go to 
Scotland, just as his new friend desired. But he 
was a youth of such a vagrant disposition, of 
2 



14 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

such erratic ways of thinking, of such dazzling 
and uncertain hopes for the future, and thus far 
so entirely accustomed to follow out only his 
own unfettered impulses, that the reader must 
not wonder to find that, as soon as he was once 
away from the influence of his benefactor, lu 
forgot him altogether. Such was the fact. He 
thought and cared no more for his hopes of pre- 
ferment at court. He was wholly taken up with 
the vague propensities for roving and wandering 
that beset him on every hand. 

By the time he reached Rouen his money was 
all gone. This was about the period of the civil 
wars that prevailed in France between the Cath- 
olics and Protestants, and ended with the violent 
death of King Henry the Fourth. From the 
Narrative of his own life, which he wrote a great 
many years afterwards, it seems that he Avas then 
attracted by the sound of martial music, and the 
pomp of military preparations ; and that at length 
he enlisted as a soldier, and fought on the side 
of the Protestants. Having once tasted of this 
strange excitement, it Avas difficult for him to 
give it up ; and, as soon, therefore, as peace 
followed in France, he was anxious to hurry 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 15 

away to the next field where his services might 
be needed. His hfe was now little more than a 
headlong race, and it would seem as if he was 
trying to see how fast he could throw it aAvay. 
Yet, out of all these aimless pursuits and im- 
pulses, he was insensibly extracting lessons of 
courage, and endurance, and self-command, that 
we shall see were of the greatest value to him in 
the rugged years of his after life. 

Accordingly, he enlisted in a band of Enghsh 
troops, that were at that time acting as auxiliaries 
against Spain in the Netherlands, and served on 
this famous European battle-field for about four 
years. Little or nothing is known of his per- 
sonal conduct during that time ; and even in his 
Narrative he has chosen to be silent about it all. 
Yet, with his naturally strong tastes for a life of 
such excitement, it is not to be supposed that he 
let pass any opportunity of distinguishing him- 
self among his comrades. "What lessons were 
set him he probably learned with all the greedi- 
ness of an earnest and ambitious nature. 

After the expiration of about four years, he 
suddenly bethought himself of the letters en- 
trusted to him by his friend, the Scotch gentle- 



16 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

man, in Paris. Acting immediately on his thought, 
he hurried away to take ship for Leith, a port in 
Scotland. The vessel in which he embarked was 
wrecked on the voyage; but his own life was 
providentially saved. Hardly was he free of 
this disaster, Avhen he was overtaken by a fit of 
severe sickness on the Isle of Northumberland, 
and his life for some time despaired of But he 
recovered at length, and hastened to Scotland to 
deliver his letters. There he was received with 
the utmost kindness, and found friends every- 
where at his hand. But circumstances conspired 
to prevent his success at court, and he was 
thrown back upon the support of his own proud 
and self-reliant spirit again. King James was 
already impatient to put on the crown that Eliz- 
abeth had worn so long ; and it is not at all 
likely that he cared to surround himself in Scot- 
land with a large army of fawning friends and 
flo.ttering courtiers. Besides, our hero would 
really have made but a sorry figure at such a 
business ; and, with his proud and imaginative 
nature, would liave failed even of the smallest 
success. There was a wider and a nobler field 
opening for him far away. 



* CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 17 

Tired with his petty disappointments there in 
Scotland, he returned at length to his native 
town of Willoiighby, in England, where he passed 
much of his time in social enjoyments and friendly 
delights. Even this wearied him in turn, and he 
began to sigh for more active and manly employ- 
ment. Already he had seen much of the great 
world beyond his native town, and his spirit 
chafed and grew restless at this quietude and 
silent restraint. A small country town, it may 
w^ell be supposed, held out few attractions either 
to occupy or detain an active spirit like his. He 
grew impatient and fretful. He could scarcely 
bear to see his fellow-creatures around him ; and 
finally, as an antidote to his peculiar disease, ho 
resolved to withdrav/ from society and the world 
altogether. 

Adopting the dress and habits of a hermit, he 
plunged into the forest, and built what he called 
a ^' pavilion of boughs," in which he lived his 
life of seclusion. For reading, he carried with 
him but two books, ■ — " Machiavelli's Art of 
War,'' and '• Marcus Aurelius ; -' and, for exer- 
cise, he practised daily on his horse at tilting 
with his lance. This, truly, was a highly roman- 
2^ 



18 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

tic mo do of life for a young maii; and argued for 
him either a cracked brain or a strikingly orig- 
inal purpose. He shot venison for his food, and 
most likely became a pilferer to get that. He 
still kept a servant near him^ and through him 
held all the converse with the world that he 
wished. 

But such a style of life as this was sure to 
make him even more widely known than before. 
Perhaps, too, the notoriety of it was not at all 
distasteful to him. It may have afforded him a 
great deal of pleasure — such as it was - — to see 
the country people staring at him with looks of 
such deep and inexpressible wonder. No doubt 
it was so. He felt more delighted to be thought 
a prodigy, — it hardly mattered of what sort, — 
than to be living quietly and unnoticed among 
his townsmen in the village of Willoughby. And 
the strange stories they told about him pleased 
him more than all. 

Before long his mode of life reached the ears 
of the higher class of people ; and an Italian 
gentleman, who was interested in what he heard, 
w^ent himself to see him in his forest seclusion. 
The Italian was an expert horseman, and so was 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 19 

Smith ; and the conversation of the former was 
highly intelhgent, and pleasing, too. This was 
sufficient to cause a friendship to sj^ring up 
between them at once. In a short time the 
stranger succeeded in drawing him out of his 
hermitage, and in inducing him to come back into 
the world of social life again. He removed with 
his new friend, and for a time found the change 
to be both agreeable and refreshing. 

But it was not to last long so. Our hero's 
nature required nothing so much as action. It 
scouted sluggishness, and was impatient of re- 
straint. It craved excitement all the time. From 
his very school days he had been longing to be 
his own master, to follow out his own headlong 
impulses, and to do some deeds that would bring 
his name prominently before the notice of the 
world. Properly trained, such a nature produces 
an invaluable character ; but, left to its own acci- 
dental development, the sport of the varying 
circumstances of each changing day, it is rare, 
indeed, that mankind receive from it the benefit 
they have a right to expect. 

Yery soon after bidding adieu to his romantic 
woodland retreat, he took leave of his new ac- 



20 CAPT. JOHX SMITH. 

quaintance. and went rambling again in the Xetli- 
erlands. At this time he was nineteen years old. 
Whether he joined the armv there or not. it does 
not appear. The next we hear of him. he has 
fallen into the company of four French rascals. 
who deliberately resolved to make him the vic- 
tim of their dishonest designs. At his age. and 
with his frank and confiding disposition, it is 
very natural that he should have been easily 
imposed npon. One of these Frenchmen rep- 
resented himself to Smith as a nobleman, j^assing 
oif his companions as his attendants, or servants. 
This fellow worms ont of Smith all his plans, and 
learns that it is his earnest desire to engage 
in the war against the Turks^ which the Aus- 
trians were at that time waging. He accordingly 
enticed him into France with promises of there 
obtaining for him the means of joining the army, 
which included letters to the general of the 
Hung*arian forces. 

All embarked for France immediately. The 
vessel was a small one. and the captain was sup- 
posed to be secretly in league Avith the designing- 
rogues. It was a dark and cheerless night in 
winter when they came into the next port : and 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 21 

the captain hurriedly set the four rascals on 
shore, together with all of Smith's baggage, 
without the knowledge of any of the other pas- 
sengers on board. The captain was. undoubt- 
edlv, a smuggler, following the same lawless 
caUing by which so many at that time enriched 
themselves along the maritime coasts. 

But it had nearly gone dangerously with him 
as soon as his iniquity came to light. The other 
passengers were so enraged, that they were 
almost read}- to take his hfe on the spot. 
Indeed, had they Imown the secret of navigat- 
ing the vessel, they would have run off with it 
and all it contained. Smith had just one penny 
left in his pocket ; and the captain would even 
have compelled him to part with his cloak to pay 
for his passage. But, perhaps, this very extrem- 
ity to which he was reduced was the means of 
helping him to friends. The rest showed him a 
great deal of sympathy and Idnd feeling, and 
helped him to whatever he needed to make him 
comfortable. One of them, in particular, stood 
by him faithfully, attracted by his youth, and 
pitying him in his misfortimes. 

While tlms journeying leisurely along through 



22 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

France, gaining friends wherever liis story is 
known, and more especially by his intelligent 
speech and pleasing manners, he found his way 
among the higher classes of people, and began 
to recover his former vivacity and cheerfulness. 
But no sooner was he himself again, than he 
resumed his old habits and feelings, longing to 
see active service once more. Very soon, there- 
fore, the abundant means with which ho had 
been supplied by his friends failed him again, 
and he knew, to his sorrow, what it was to want 
for food to keep him alive. He found himself at 
length in a vast wood, lying exhausted, and with- 
out resolution, beneath a tree. He declared that 
ho could go no further. He was quite wiUing to 
remain where he was, and die in peace. But 
fortune sent a good farmer that way, who re- 
lieved his necessities, supplying him with food 
and money, and setting liir.i v/itli v. lighter heart 
on liirf journey again. HOw much i^^ America 
indebted to that kind French farmer ! 

Ho came to the province of Brittany, still a 
wanderer, without aim, and almost without incli- 
nation. By the strangest accident in the world, 
he fell in with one of the rogues who had con- 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 23 

spired to rob liim. As soon as they recognized 
one another, each drew his sword, and went at 
it without a word. There was an old tower near 
hy, and the inmates were witnesses of the affray. 
Smith's spirit was pretty well inflamed with the 
memory of the wrong suffered at his enemy's 
hands, and he easily became the victor. The 
beaten robber confessed his guilt in the presence 
of all assembled there ; and, with such satisfac- 
tion as this, Smith left him on the ground to be 
taken care of by the peasantry. 

Next he reached the country-seat of an earl, 
Avitli whom he fortunately became acquainted 
during his earlier experiences in France, and by 
whom he was treated with the greatest kindness 
and generosity. The nobleman took a great deal 
of pains to show him the country, and to interest 
him as long as he remained. And, when he was 
at length ready to depart, plentiful means for pur- 
suing his journey were placed in his hands, and 
he at length crossed the country to Marseilles, 
where he embarked on board ship for Italy. 

But fresh trouble was brewing for him. It 
was chiefly by these tough experiences that his 
spirit was to be hardened to its heroic strength 



24 CAPT. JOHX SMITIf. 

and endurance. Hardly had the vessel got out 
to sea, when a storm arose, driving them into the 
harbor of Toulon. It likewise happened that all 
his fellow-passengers^ of whom there was a great 
crowd, were Catholics, bound on a pilgrimage to 
Rome. With his peculiar frankness and candor, 
it was impossible for him to conceal from them 
that he was a Protestant j in fact, it soon became 
known that he was the only Protestant on board. 
To this fact they superstitiously ascribed all their 
ill-luck, and thence began to use hard language 
toward him. Of course he used his tongTie as 
freely as they ; and vdien they reviled Queen 
Elizabeth, ho retorted quite as bitingly upon the 
Pope. 

With such feelings existing between them, 
the vessel got under way again ; and again the 
tempestuous weather overtook them, compelling 
them to anchor once more, — this time off the 
Isle of St. Mary's, near Nice. Now the passen- 
gers felt very certain that he was the cause of 
this prolonged danger, and declared among them- 
selves that they never should Iiave fair weather 
so lon^i," as such a heretic remained on board. 
His own replies to their threats and insults 




f /f ,/il I' \ ^1 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 25 

undoubtedly increased their ill-feeling, and, in a 
sudden fit of passion, they lifted him over the 
vessel's rail, and threw him headlong into the 
sea. Fortunately, it was not a very great way 
to the shore, and he was an excellent swimmer; 
so, striking out lustily among the boiling waves, 
he reached the land of St. Mary's, with nothing 
but a drenched suit of clothes, and a heart that 
kept up as stoutly as ever. 

On the island, which v»^as only a small tract, 
there was not a living human being besides him- 
self. He began to look around him to see what 
resources there might be for supporting lifc-^ and 
found a few small cattle and goats. With com- 
panions like these ho might, perhaps, have 
become another Selkirk in time, had not fortune 
come to his relief again ; for, the very next day, 
a French vessel, that had put into one of the lit- 
tle bays of the island during the storm, took him 
on board, willing to go wherever its destination 
might happen to be. The captain of the vessel, 
by a happy accident, was a friend of the same 
French nobleman vdio had taken such an in. 
terest in our hero in Brittany ; and, as soon as 
Smith's acquaintance Avith ihe latter Vv^as known, 



26 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

the kindness and consideration with which he 
was treated were increased in a very striking 
degree. 

The captain, to tell the truth, was an adven- 
turer on the high seas, or, in other words, a 
i:)irate. That occupation was not held in such 
abhorrence by the world in those days as it is in 
these ] and it was not unusual to find gentlemen 
of respectability, and even of quality, engaged 
in the pursuit of it. It brought huge fortunes 
suddenly and mysteriously to the pockets of the 
daring adventurers, with which they could lead 
on shore tlio lives of wealthy noblemen. 

First they sailed to Alexandria in Egypt. At 
that port they discharged their cargo, and imme- 
diately afterwards set sail again for the Mediter- 
ranean to watch for such prizes as might come 
in their way. They sailed along the coast of 
Asia, past Cyprus, Rhodes, the Archipelago, Can- 
dia and the Grecian coast, and the island of 
Cephalonia, and finally took up their position 
between the island of Cyprus and the Capo of 
Otranto, watching closely for the passage of some 
richly-freighted vessel bound up the Adriatic for 
Yonicc. These Yenetian merchantmen at that 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 27 

time traded largely in silks, velvets, gold, spices, 
and wines, with all the ports along the Mediter- 
ranean coast, and always went back to Yenice 
laden with the most varied and costly cargoes. 
The maritime laws of the world were not as 
strictly defined, nor as vigilantly guarded, in 
those days as they are now ; and very often a 
vessel belonging to one nation fell a prey to the 
vessel of another on the high seas, though both 
nations were on terms of the closest friendship 
all the while. 

At length a vessel hove in sight, as the wily 
captain expected, ■ — a Venetian. He hailed her, 
and was promptly answered with a gun, whose 
shot killed one man on board the French vessel 
outright. Probably the Venetian did not like the 
looks of the strange cruiser from the beginning. 
At once, therefore, the two vessels closed in 
with one another, and a terribly severe and 
bloody battle ensued, that lasted nearly two 
hours. The Frenchman twice boarded the enemy 
during that time, and each time was successfully 
driven back. The next attempt resulted in both 
vessels taking fire, and each drew off to quench 
the flames. At it they soon went again, however. 



28 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

both parties inflamed to the highest pitch of 
passion. But the Venetian found itself finally in 
a sinking condition^ and yielded witliout further 
resistance. The Frenchman put his men on 
board to stop the leaks, anxious only to remove 
as much of the valuable freight as could be taken 
away. They took what they could, and left at 
least another shipdoad to be buried beneath 
the waves. In this fierce engagement the Ve- 
netian vessel lost twenty men, and the French- 
man fifteen ; and the former Avas of twice 
the tonnage of the latter, if not even more. 
Smith's share of the spoils was about a thousand 
sequins. 

Thus provided for against pecuniary want, he 
prepared to separate from his new friends, unwil- 
ling any longer to pursue the l:»usiness that had 
so suddenly enriched him. At his own request, 
therefore, the captain set him on shore in Pied- 
mont, taking leave of him in the most friendly 
manner, and wishing liim good luck Avlicrever 
liis changeful fortune might carry him. Smith 
pushed on at once for Legliorn, and then began 
a tour of Italy. In the course of his travels he 
fell in with his old friends, the sons of Lord Wil- 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. ' 2-0 

loughby^ who were rejoiced once more to see 
him, and hear his account of his adventures. 
Next he went to Rome, where he saw the Pope, 
and a long row of cardinals, and from which city 
he soon after set out for Naples. Thus from 
place to place he wandered about, visiting king- 
dom after kingdom, and city after city, spending 
his money lavishly the while, and thoughtless 
altogether of the future, or of any purpose ho 
had ever entertained. But growing tired, at 
the last, of this aimless way of life, the recollec- 
tion of his desire to fight against the Turks 
suddenly flashed over him. He ]3roceeded with- 
out delay to Venice, in obedience to his orig- 
inal design, sailed thence across the Adriatic 
to Ragusa, wandered along the broken and rocky 
coasts of Albania, and Dalmatia, reached Scla- 
vonia, went into Styria, to the town of Gratz, 
where Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, lived, 
and there, through the friendly instrumentality 
of an Englishman and an Irishman, was brought 
to the notice of several of the officers of the 
Imperial army, with the staff of one of whom 
he immediately connected himself, and proceeded 
with the regiment, which was of cavalry, to 
3-- 



30 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Vienna, the military head-qtiarters. Henceforth 
he was to exhibit his powers, as a brave and 
dauntless soldier, against one of the most cruel 
people living on the face of the earth. 




CHAPTER II. 

EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 

AH0:MET the Tliird was the Grand 
Seignor of Turkey at this period^ hav- 
ing recently succeeded to the throne, 
and to the management of the hitherto disastrous 
war with Germany. It was in the latter part of 
the year 1601 when our hero enlisted ; and dur- 
ing that year there had been fought many very 
severe battles between the two nations, result- 
ing generally to the advantage of the Turks. 
The latter had succeeded in obtaining a foothold 
in Hungary and other 23rovinces, of which it was 
found next to impossible to dispossess them. So 
bold had they grown with their recent successes 
that they pushed on through the country in the 
face of all obstacles, and laid siege to the walled 
town of Olympach. Lord Ebersbaught had been 
assigned to the defence of this place, which he 



32 . CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

now held with his forces. The Turks lay en- 
camped aronnd it to the number of twenty thou- 
sand. They daily made vigorous efforts to enter, 
battering the walls and destroying all the out- 
works against which the}^ could safely bring 
their powers of assault. The condition of the 
garrison was rapidly becoming distressing, and 
it was evident at head-quarters that, without 
assistance, they could hold out but a little while 
longer. 

In this extremity the Baron Kissell was dis- 
patched to their relief with a force of artillery; 
but it was soon found that it was wholly inad- 
equate to the trying emergency. Under the 
baron served the Earl ^Meldritch, with his troops 
of cavalry, and Smith, as wo have already said, 
formed one of his staff. Immediately on arriv- 
ing on the ground he gained the confidence of 
the baron by his spirit and intelligence, and was 
transferred to a post nearer the baron's person. 
So unequal were the forces of the baron to those 
of the Turks, he discovered that he could do no 
more than now and then cut off parties carrying 
supplies, or a straggling detachment that fool- 
ishly threw itself within his reach. This was 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 33 

liarclly better than nothing at all ; he saw that if 
he was to be of any servicOj it could be only in 
conjunction with the besieged army of Lord 
Ebersbaught within the town. To effect his 
object, the chances of which now looked dark 
and dubious enough, he set his sharpest wits at 
^vork forthwith. Perhaps he could find a man, 
he thought, who possessed the courage and 
daring to attempt the passage of the well-guarded 
Turkish lines. 

In the midst of his perplexity, the person he 
wanted Avas just at his hand. John Smith 
offered a timely suggestion that seemed to be 
nothing less than the easy solution of the riddle. 
When in Yienna, in company with Lord Ebers- 
baught, he remembered to have told him of 
a telegraphic system, by which, with lighted 
torches, he might express any of the letters of 
the alphabet, and so convey both words and sen- 
tences as far as the lights could be plainly seen. 
Smith felt confident that Lord Ebersbaught had 
not by this time forgotten his secret, and pro» 
posed to put his telegraphic system in operation 
at the earliest moment possible. There was a 
high mountain, about seven miles away from 



34 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Olympacli, on the top of which he determined to 
light his signals. First he built three fires^ 
equally distant from one another. The garrison 
saw them at once, and their commander, recol- 
lecting the secret which the young stranger had 
communicated to him before, quickly compre- 
hended their mysterious meaning. He answered 
the signals with three similar fires from the top 
of the walls. Smith's heart leaped within him 
for joy at so happy a discovery, and he imme- 
diately telegraphed back again, by means of his 
torches, letter by letter, and word by word, the 
following sentence : ^- On TJiursday^ at night, I 
loill cliarge on tlie East. At the alarm, sally 
forth ! '' Without delay the answer was returned 
by the delighted commander of the garrison, 
"Iivill!'^ Smith forthwith hurried back to the 
camp, and set on foot the necessary prej)arations 
for the approaching assault. 

The Turks were divided into two bodies of 
ten thousand men each, and a small river flowed 
between them. Tlxe army of Baron Kissell con- 
sisted of only ten thousand in all. Smith studied 
how he might most effectually palsy the one 
body of the enemy with fear, and then suddenly 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURK;^. 35 

fall upon the other, and rout them in the confu- 
sion. The river was all in favor of his project, 
too. Taking, therefore, several small cords, an 
hundred fathoms long, and fastening to them 
sonfe three thousand matches," or fusees filled 
with powder, he ordered them all to be stretched 
and fired simultaneously just before the assault 
on the town, so as to deceive the body of the 
enemy across the river with the idea of a sudden 
attack upon themselves. The plan proved quite 
as successful as he could have wished. While 
Baron Kissell with his army was making a vig- 
orous onset upon one half of the Turks, the 
other half stood ready and waiting for the ap- 
proach of those mysterious warriors from over 
the river. Exactly at the right moment, too, the 
garrison marched out of the toAvn upon their 
besiegers, who, in effect but ten thousand strong 
now, found themselves hemmed in between the 
fires of two fierce and exasperated armies. 
They ran about in the direst confusion, seeing 
the fatal trap into which they had fallen. Some 
tried to cross the river to their companions, and 
were drowned in making the attempt. Thou- 
sands of them were slain by their enemy, and 



3(3 CAPT. J01I^ SMITH. 

thousands more flcJ in deeiDest dismay. ^lean- 
Avliilo the deluded half of the Turkish army 
stood waiting for the coming on of tlio fictitious 
soldiers with their imaginary musketry, unable 
to extend to their comrades the rehef which for 
the brief moment of the crisis would have been 
so valuable. 

The Turks retired with sliame and confusion 
from the place of their late encampment^ leaving 
the vigilant victors in undisputed possession of 
the town and its vicinity. Smith was forthwith 
made captain of a company of two hundred and 
fifty horse for his ingenious and valuable ser- 
vices in this affair, and received an abundance 
of other favors and rewards besides. He Avas 
known to the whole army as a man of superior 
daring and undisputed courage and bravery. 

For a short time after this event there ensued 
a peace. No fighting was done on either side. 
It was winter ; and, probably, both armies were 
glad to avail themselves of the respite they so 
much needed. Early in the following spring, 
however, the campaign was renewed with fresh 
spirit and vigor. The Turkish Sultan added 
new levies to his army, and so did the emperor 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 37 

of tlie Germans. Tho Archduke Matliias com- 
manded one of the three divisions of the German 
army^ having the Duke Mercury for his Keuten- 
ant, under whom, in turn, served the Earl of 
Meldritch, still tho leader of Smith and his com- 
pany of horse. Mathias w^as assigned tho region 
of Lower Hungary, and he began his work by 
laying siege to a town called Abba Regalis, then 
in the hands of the Turks, and most strongly for- 
tified against assault. Here agani Smith's Avell- 
known ingenuity came into fortunate use. He 
made known to the Earl of Meldritch, his imme- 
diate commander, his invention of a species of 
bomb-shehs, that lie called the •• fiery dragon,'' 
and which, filled "with various explosive combus- 
tibles, was to bo thrown into the town by means 
of a powerful sling. Tho earl allowed him to 
experiment with his new instruments of Avar, and 
our hero set himself about it with alacrity. First 
he learned, from such deserters as occasionally 
came into camp, in what parts of the town the 
people were accustomed chiefly to assemble, and 
then at the hour of midnight he threw forty or 
fifty of these strange missiles into their midst. 
They left a figry track behind them in the sky, 
4 



38 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

and then could be heard by the besieging army the 
cries and groans of the wounded and mangled 
enemy. The buildings in the suburbs, too, were 
fired, and the Turks were very much troubled to 
check the conflagration. 

At last the besiegers resolved to make one 
bold and final push, and carry the place by 
storm. As they came on, the Turkish bashaw 
withdrew to the heart of the town with liis 
men, numbering some five or six hundred, all 
told, and encouraged them by his individual ex- 
ample to fight to the last moment of their lives. 
It was a bloody fray, and in its progress nearly 
all the Turks were cut to pieces. But the town 
-was captured, and the Christians for the first 
time in sixty years held it in their possession. 
There was already an army of sixty thousand 
Turks on the way to its relief; and they heard 
of its fall before they reached the place. Noth- 
ing daunted with the intelhgence, they pressed 
on as fast as they could, their commander deeply 
chagrined at such a mortifying and altogether 
unexpected disaster. He hoped now to surprise 
the victors, and so gain an easy entrance again 
into the town. But the Duke Jlercury had 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 39 

heard of his approach, and, strongly defending 
the town with a part of his troops, went forth to 
tr}^ the courage of his new enemy with the 
twenty thousand men that remained to his com- 
mand. The two forces w^ere vastly dispropor- 
tioned to one another, though the advantage of 
su]3erior discipline was decidedly on the side of 
the duke. 

They met on a large plain ; and, gradually, the 
whole of both armies was closely engaged. No 
people were braver than the Turks in those 
times, and few were more desperate in a conflict. 
They cared nothing for their lives, except to 
sell them at the very highest price. Tlirough 
the rest of that day they fought, night alone 
bringing the combat to a temporary pause. 
Smith had a horse shot under him in the course 
of the battle, and distinguished himself more than 
ever by his valor and intrepidity. During the 
night the Turkish general, feeling satisfied that 
he had the enemy already in his power, secretly i 
sent away twenty thousand of his men to besiege 
the town, and try at any hazard to take it again. 
This was a great mistake on his part, since the 
Duke Mercury had committed its defence to a 



40 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

sufficient number of troops to hold it against 
the last emergency. With what remained of 
his army near him. he thought he should he 
able to bring the enemy on the i)lains to terms 
as soon almost as he might see fit to join the 
encounter. 

When day dawned he discovered his error at 
once. The duke likewise felt the need of 
exercising considerable wariness^ and set his 
men to throwing up entrenchments for their 
better protection. Thus the two armies lay in 
sight of each other for several days. Unable to 
draw them into another battle^ the Turks began 
to taimt them with cowardice^ and defied them, 
to come out into the open plain and fight them. 
Their insults finally provoked the contest the}^ 
so much desired^ and the imperial army oftered 
them battle. It was but a brief struggle, — ^ the 
Turks being driven from the ground with the 
loss of six thousand men. How great was the 
loss on the other side it is not stated. The Turks 
retreated to Buda^ and the duke made a division 
of his army into three separate forces. One 
body was placed under the command of the 
Earl of Meldritcli, who, with Smith stih in ]\m 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TUEKS. 41 

service, was ordered awa}^ to wage the war upon 
the inhabitants of Transylvania. 

The earl, as it happened, w^as himself a native 
of Transylvania, and the idea of fighting his owai 
kinsmen was not altogether agreeable to his feel- 
ings. There were two enemies of Prince Sigis- 
mund, who was the ruler of Transylvania, — the 
German emperor on the one side, and the Turks 
on the other ; and it is no great wonder that the 
earl preferred to serve Sigismund against his 
old enemy, the Turks, rather than the G-erman 
emperor, against the prince of his own native 
province. So ho transferred his friendship with- 
out further delay to the cause of Transylvania, 
concentrating all his energies against the Turk- 
ish enemies alone. In this arrangement he was 
greatly assisted by Smith, who, in truth, cared 
little for whom he fought, so it was only against 
the Turks. That was his original purpose in 
enlisting for the general campaign. 

It was a wild and rugged country in which 
our hero now found himself, with mountain- 
heights, and difficult passes, and almost inacces- 
sible strongholds. Among these natural fortifi- 
cations the Turks had succeeded in entrenching 



42 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

themselves, issuing forth with impunity to ravage 
the countries of the plain, and escaping again to 
their hiding-places in the hills, with the certainty 
of being secure from the reach of their enemies. 
Not only the Turks, but the Tartars, also, with 
bands of numberless vagabonds and robbers, pro- 
ceeded thus to devastate the region, taking or 
destroying such proj)erty as they could lay their 
hands on, and massacreing the inhabitants Avith- 
out discrimination or mercy. Such enemies Avcre 
of the hardest sort to encounter, for they never 
fought in the open plains, but secreted them- 
selves everywhere along the mountain-passes, 
and dealt out death with their weapons where 
danger was least to be looked for. 

Up among the mountains, too, they had pos- 
session of small cities, that were perched in the 
air like the eyries of eagles, overlooking all the 
vast map of territory below. One of these cities 
was named Regall; and, besides its natural de- 
fences against an enemy, it had been fortified to 
the utmost extent of which human ingenuity was 
capable. The Earl of Meldritch had succeeded 
in driving the Turks, with their barbarian allies, 
back to their mountain-fastnesses," till at length 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 43 

they vferc obliged to take refuge in these cities 
alone. Regall, for example, was now swarming 
Avith them, every one feeling safe within its 
walls, and satisfied that all attempts to capture 
it would end in discomfiture. It was so built on 
the mountain's side that it could be approached 
from only one quarter, and that the broad plain, 
or table-land, in front. Discouraging as the at- 
tempt might appear, however, the earl was not 
the soldier to think it entirely beyond the possi- 
bility of success. His long experience in the art 
of war told Iiim many a bright and hopeful tale 
of the result of perseverance, and encouraged 
him to believe that wdiat had been done with the 
help of that fjuality in times gone by, could just 
as Avell be done Avith its assistance again. And 
he accordingly addressed himself to tlie task of 
the siege Avith increased spirit and enthusiasm. 
His AAdiole army did not number more than eight 
thousand'men ; but he determined that he Avould 
supply the deficiency of numbers Avith a higher 
quality of courage and skill. 

They had scA^eral skirmishes, from CA^ery one 
of Avhich the earl came off victorious. Slowly 
the Turks all retreated Avithin the Avails, and. 



44 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

feeling l)eyond the reach of liarm there, taunted 
and defied their beleaguering enemy in the most 
scornful and insulting terms. They Avere amj^ly 
fortified, they had a large and abundant supply 
of provisions, and they dared their handful of 
enemies to come on and do the worst they 
were able. Just at this crisis the forces of the 
earl's superior officer. Prince Moyses, reached 
the scene, and infused new courage into the 
hearts of the besiegers. The prince brought 
with him nine thousand men, and he immediately 
took command of the united armies. For a full 
month they worked diligently to complete their 
j^reparations for taking the town, throwing up 
the necessary entrenchments, and erecting the 
batteries that were soon to be called into de- 
structive action. All this time the Turks kept 
defying and insulting them, laughing at them for 
their idleness, and telling them they were grow- 
ing fat for want of something to do. They asked 
the besiegers what they really intended to do 
there before the town, and said they began to be 
afraid lest they should go away before long, and 
not afford any amusement for the ladies within. 
And, among other messages which they sent out, 







EXPERIENCE WITH THE TUKKS. 

came one from a, Turkish commander, name 
Lord Turbishaw, challenging any one captai 
the enemy to meet him in single combat before 
the walls, and pro]DOsing that the head and per- 
sonal property of the vanqnished party should 
belong to the conqueror. The ostensible motive 
for the challenge was to delight the ladies with 
some sort of chivalric pastime. 

As soon as this message was received, there 
was great eagerness on the part of the besiegers 
to accept the challenge it contained. Several 
captains at once offered to go out and meet the 
proud Turbishaw ; and Smith, who, it Avill be 
remembered, commanded a company of horse, 
Avas among the number. To settle the ques- 
tion as to who should undertake to be the cham- 
pion of the besieging army, they consented to 
draw lots. As luck would have it, the lot fell on 
Smith. Nothing, as may well be conjectured, 
could have resulted more agreeably to his desire. 
He burned for the conflict already. 

The day for the combat was appointed, and a 
temporary truce was agreed on between the two 
armies. Contrary to the usual custom of the 
Turkish nation, which does not permit females to 



4G C'APT. JOHN SMITH. 

expose their faces to the public gaze of the infi- 
dels, — that is, persons of those nations that do 
not subscribe to their own peculiar religious 
faith, — the ladies on this day were to bo seen 
ui)on tlio walls in great numbers, cheering on 
their champion to the contest, which they did not 
for a moment doubt would result in their favor. 
Turbishaw rode to the enclosed ground first, 
escorted by the music of hautboys, and attended 
by three of his followers, one of whom Avent 
before him, bearing his lance. He w^as mounted 
on a superb charger, and encased in a suit of 
shining and costly armor. He had — so Smith 
tells us in his Narrative — a great pair of wings, 
made of eagle's feathers, fastened to his shoul- 
ders, and the feathers were richly decorated with 
golden ornaments and precious stones. As he 
rode over the field to his position, a murmur of 
approbation ran round the Turkish ranks, and he 
felt himself the proud conqueror already. All 
eyes were next strained to get a glimpse of 
the rash individual who had ventured to meas- 
ure weapons on that day with so haughty a 
foeman. 

Smith was as ready as they were anxious, how- 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TURKS. 47 

ever ; and, as the drums struck up their stirring 
roll; and tlio trumpets brayed forth their noisy 
defiance, he galloped over the ground full as 
proudly as his enemy had done, saluting his foe 
with a bow as he passed him, and taking his 
2>lace at the opposite side of the enclosure. The 
army of the besiegers rent the air with their 
cheers as he made his appearance, stirring the 
heart of their champion with the spirit of a con- 
queror. There was no more delay now. The 
trumpet gave the signal, and the two combatants 
rushed furiously together. Smith carried him- 
self so firmly in his saddle, and took such true 
and deliberate aim with the point of his lance, 
that, at the very first encounter, he thrust it 
entirely through the beaver of his proud foe, 
and drove it through his eye into the brain ! He 
fell to the ground instantly, without a groan or 
a struggle. Smith dismounted, unloosed the 
helmet of the dead man, cut off his head, and 
bore it away as a present to the prince under 
whom he served. The camp of the besiegers 
Avas at once alive with joy, and they received 
our hero into their arms with shouts of con- 
gratulation and welcome. This victory, they 



48 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

thought, promised everything for their own final 
success. 

But this was not quite the end of the matter. 
The dead Turbishaw had a particular friend, wdio 
was very deeply attached to him. His name was 
Groalgo, and he was esteemed a great warrior. 
In his mingled rage and grief at the overthrow 
of his friend, he sent a message to Smith, offer- 
ing to risk his own head for the j^rivilege of 
recovering that of the dead Turbishaw, and to 
throw in his horse and armor besides. Our hero 
Avas no less ready for the fray than he showed 
himself before, and returned the answer that he 
accepted this second challenge without hesita- 
tion. The contest, it was agreed, should come 
off on the following day. Again the ladies cov- 
ered the walls, and again the two armies anx- 
iously looked on, and awaited the result of the 
combat. The champions entered the enclosure 
as before. The signal Avas given, and they drove 
at one another Avith all fierceness. At the very 
first bloAV their lances Avcrc shivered into many 
pieces. Each Avheeled instantly and drcAv his 
pistol. Smith Avas Avounded, though but tri- 
flingly, at the first fire. At the second, he crip- 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TCJllKS. 49 

pled with his shot the left arm of his adversary, 
and rendered his horse frantic and unmanageable. 
In this condition he v/as hurled violently to the 
ground, where he lay quite in the power of liis 
conqueror. Smith immediately smote off his 
head, took possession of his horse and armor, 
according to the conditions of the challenge, 
and returned in triumph to lay all at the feet of 
his prince and commander. We cannot help 
thinking that this act of our hero was a cruel 
and inhuman one, inasmuch as he had his enemy 
completely at his mercy, and taking his life in 
this situation could be little loss than deliberate 
murder ; but the standard of public opinion was 
not the same in those days that it is in our own, 
especially in the regions where such people as 
Turks and Tartars were wont to assemble. It 
would have been expected of Smith that he 
should have taken off the head of his enemy, 
even had he begged piteously for mercy. 

The Turks felt downcast enough in view of 
these unexpected misfortunes. Their two brav- 
est champions were slain, and their enemies 
became greatly elated at the issue. They ceased 
deriding the besiegers, and no longer sent them 
5 



50 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

defiant or insulting messages. But Smith now felt 
that it was Ms turn to offer a challenge. Accord- 
ingly, he sent a polite message to the ladies of the 
towU; offering to return to them the heads of his 
defeated enemies, if they Avould select a cham- 
pion, and send him out to take them. If he was 
himself overcome, his own head should go back 
with the others within the walls. There was lit- 
tle delay in the choice of a brave warrior, named 
Bonny Mulgro, to undertake this business ; and, 
on the next day, the parties met in the old place 
to decide the contest. Bonny Mulgro, being the 
challenged j)arty, had a right to the choice of 
weapons ; so he selected the battle-axe, the pis- 
tol, and the falchion. He knew something alr^My 
of Smith's skill with the lance, and determined to 
give him no chance of success with his favorite 
weapon. Besides, he was himself very expert in 
the use of the battle-axe, and entertained no doubt 
on which side the victory would finally settle. 

At the sound of the trumpet they rushed to 
the encounter, each discharging his pistol to no 
purpose. These were immediately thrown aside 
for the battle-axe, Avith which Aveapons the strug- 
gle was fierce and protracted. Each used his 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE TL^RKS, 51 

instrument of destruction with all tlie vigor 
of which he was capable. They rained hard 
and heavj blows upon one another's heads^ till 
neither seemed to know whether he was alive or 
dead^ or what he could bo fighting for. Pres- 
ently the Turk brought Smith so severe and 
sudden a stroke as to knock his battle-axe out of 
his hand. Then the friends of the Turk set up 
a loud shout, as if the chances of his foe were 
gone beyond recovery. But tlia.t very shout 
brought our hero to his senses in a twinkling 
again ; and, with an almost superhuman effort, he 
rallied himself for one more desperate and final 
endeavor. Guiding his horse with such skilful- 
ness as to avoid the blows of his enemy, he drew 
his falchion suddenly from its sheath, and, rush- 
ing madly upon him, he run it through his body at 
a single thrust. In an instant he was stretched 
upon the ground, and Smith was at hand to 
deprive him of the head which he had seen fit to 
i-isk in so rash and profitless an encounter. 

Thus did Smith become the hero of three com- 
bats, and lay the heads of three of the chosen 
champions of the enemy at the feet of the prince 
whom he so faithfully served. All this afforded 



r.9 



OAPT. JOHN SMITH. 



any tiling but a very humane , or even an intel- 
lectual entertainment for those Avho assembled 
to witness so exciting a scene ; but wo must 
bear in mind that the world itself was hardly out 
of the woods of barbarism in those days, and 
that those refined and lofty sentiments that 
belong to humanity in a more cultivated con- 
dition, were, at that time, and in those particular 
regions, almost, if not entirely, unknown. 



G IT A P TEE III. 

SOLD IXTO SLAVERY. 

SO intoxicated with joy was the army, and 
so deeply affected with gratitude were the 
generals, at these successive victories of 
our hero, that a pageant of six thousand men 
was ordered to escort him through the camp. 
The three heads of his enemies were borne on 
uplifted spears before the three captured horses, 
and Smith was marched in this style of an ancient 
conqueror into the tent of the prince. The lat- 
ter embraced him with ardor, bestowed on him a 
great deal of praise for his bravery and sldU, and 
presented him with a splendid steed, gorgeously 
caparisoned, a bright and flashing scimetar, and 
a costly belt. He likewise received additional 
rewards from the Earl of Meldritch, and was forth- 
with promoted in his service. Subsequently, also, 
when the Prince Sigismnnd came into the camp 
5" 



54 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

to review the army, hearing of his distinguished 
courage, he presented him with his portrait 
framed in gold, settled on him a pension of 
three hundred ducats for every year he lived, 
and gave him of his own accord a patent of 
nobility, Avhich was afterwards recorded, as such 
things usually are, in what is called the Herald's 
College, in England. By the gift of this patent, 
therefore. Smith at once became a nobleman. 

The preparations for opening the assault on 
the Avails of the tower of Regall being finally 
completed, the work Avas begun by the discharge 
of twenty-six cannon, that kept up a perpetual 
fire for about two weeks. Perseveixmce had 
been the watchword of the commander from the 
beginning ; and, with perseverance, the much- 
desired object was attained at last. Two wide 
breaches were effected by the fire of the guns, 
through which the troops were commanded to 
enter. For a while the Turks resisted with all 
their well-known bravery, fighting the besiegers 
fiercely hand to hand, and selling their lives at 
the dearest possible rate. But a prolonged re- 
sistance promised nothing but a speedier death 
than they might otherwise find, and they soon 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 55 

beat a retreat to the castle, or citadel. Here 
they shut themselves up, secure for the time in 
the refuge which it offered. 

But the enemy speedily brought their guns to 
bear on this last fortress, eager to got at the 
hated foes to Avhich it gave shelter. It was to 
little purpose now that the hard-pressed inmates 
sent out a flag-of-truce, or that they ofi'ered to 
capitulate on any terms that might be submitted. 
Their conquerors felt that they had them already 
in their j)ower, and the recollection of former 
wrongs it was exceedingly difficult to wipe out. 
They neither heard nor heeded, therefore, the 
prayers and petitions that were borne on every 
breath of the mountain air to their ears. The 
moment they had caused a breach in the castle's 
walls, they sprang in and commenced an indis- 
criminate slaughter, such as makes one's blood 
run cold to relate. All were put to the sword in a 
spirit of the most barbarous cruelty. Their heads 
were cut off and stuck around the walls of the 
town, — horrible proofs to those who saw them of 
the bloody havoc that had been going on within. 
It was a dreadful massacre, from which none 
escaped to their friends to tell the sorry tale. 



56 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Prince IVloyses left the place soon after in 
the keeping of a sufficient garrison^ and set out 
with the rest of his army upon other and more 
distant expeditions. Cities were sacked, and 
town after town was carried by assault. In all 
these revolting experiences of the army, Smith, 
of course, took a very active part ; but he has 
confessed, in the Narrative of his own life, hoAv 
little his inner and better feelings approved of 
the terrible scenes through which he was com- 
pelled to pass. The enemy, to be sure, would 
no doubt in all cases have been guilty of the 
same cruelties, had ifc but fallen within their 
power ; yet that is but a poor extenuation, wo 
must allow, of the conduct of those whose better 
fortune made them the conquerors. 

About this time Prince Sigismund, of Tran- 
sylvania, finding that he could never hope suc- 
cessfully to make head against both the German 
emperor and the Turks combined; so far be- 
thought himself of the unhappy condition of his 
subjects as to accept the terms of peace which 
the emperor offered him, and, by retiring with 
the title and the ample fortune of a nobleman, 
gave over his rule to the former altogether. 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 57 

He saw that his country was fast falling in 
pieces, in consequence of these two wars, and 
he had the goqd of his subjects too much at 
heart to persist in a course that was now little 
less than downright folly, and must surely lead 
to their ultimate destruction. But the Prince 
Moyses, who held command under him, Vt^ould 
not yield on any terms to the demands of tho 
emperor. In this determination he was sup- 
ported by his troops, and soon after led them on 
to an encounter with the forces of the Germans. 
He w^as beaten, and obliged to flee to his old ene- 
mies, the Turks, for refuge and succor. Smith, 
however, did not happen to be in his service in 
this unlucky emergency, but still remained near 
his old friend, the Earl of Meldritch. The latter 
was simply waiting for another brush with the 
common foe, the Turks, for which an opportu- 
nity was not long in coming. It would have 
been folly for him to have attempted anything 
now on his own account, and he therefore 
turned over both his arms and his allegiance to 
the emperor at the same moment. 

Jeremias was at that time the governor of the 
Turkish province called Wallachia, whose dis- 



58 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

satisfied subjects had just revolted, and suc- 
ceeded in expelling him from the territory ; 
and, in order to keep him out altogether, they 
begged the German emperor to come to their 
assistance. Of course, he waited for no second 
invitation. The prospect of extending his sway 
over additional foreign territories was tempta- 
tion enough to send him to the rescue without 
delay or the asking of any questions. The 
moment the Germans entered the province they 
appointed a new governor of their own, named 
Rodell, and prepared to go and meet the enemy 
wherever they might find them. By great labor 
and perseverance the exiled governor, Jeremias, 
managed to collect an army of some forty thou- 
sand men around his standard, and offered the 
intruders battle. Eodell retreated again to Tran- 
sylvania, in tlie face of so unexpected a force, 
and asked for more assistance from the Germans. 
At once, therefore, the Earl of Meldritch was or- 
dered to join him with a force of thirty thousand 
men, — an army that was distinguished for its 
experience, and training, and valor. Smith served 
under him, and both hastened to Eodell's support 
into Wallachia. 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 59 

They found Jeremias encamped on the plains, 
waiting for more assistance from the Tartars. 
The camp was very strongly fortified, so that the 
German, or the Christian army, as they styled 
themselveS;, did not venture to disturb them in 
their position. The Christian army encamped 
likewise. The two forces engaged in frequent 
skirmishes from day to day, all of which were 
remarkable more for their savage cruelty than 
for their importance to the fortunes of either. 
The most shocking barbarities were enacted con- 
tinually. Rodell Avould behead the prisoners 
that were taken in these skirmishes, and, during 
the night, fling the heads, all bloody and ghastly, 
into the trenches of his enemy. On the other 
hand, Jeremias would strip his prisoners of their 
skins, while they were still alive, and, after stick- 
ing the quivering bodies on long stakes and 
poles, hold them up to the terrified vision of the 
Germans. Finally Rodell feigned a retreat, in 
order to draw his enemy out of their encamp- 
ment. The deceit fully answered its design, and 
the Turks came forth in hot and precipitate pur- 
suit. Decoyed into a position where they no 
longer had the advantage, they were fallen upon 



GO CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

by the infuriated Germans with terrible energy, 
and the slaughter became at once indiscriminate 
and fearful. It was a hand-to-hand light, and 
Smith says that one could not obtain a footing 
anywhere except on the strewn carcasses- of 
slaughtered men. The Christians vrcre victori- 
ous in the end ; but twenty-five thousand men 
of both armies were left dead on the plain. 

Jeremias, with the remnant of an army num- 
bering fourteen thousand men, fled to another 
province called Moldavia, and Rodell for a time 
exercised his office unmolested as governor 
of Wallachia. Jeremias, however, was active, 
and did not for a moment intermit' his efforts to 
recover his power. Collecting together an army 
of nearly forty-five thousand men, composed 
alike of Tartars and Turks, he led them on 
against the usurper of his office and dignities. 
The Earl of Meldritch was sent out to meet him, 
having but thirteen thousand under his com- 
mand. It was not supposed that Jeremias had 
such a large force at his disposal, and, of course, 
but moderate preparations were made to oppose 
him. As soon, however, as Meldritch saw the 
immense disproportion between the two armies, 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. Gl 

lie priidentty tlionglit best to retire again. All 
the way along the course of their retreat they 
were engaged in constant skirmishes, sometimes 
resulting to their own advantage, and sometimes 
to that of the enemy. Far away in their rear lay 
the town called Eottenton, which was built 1)}' 
Rodell ; and, if they could but reach that, jMel- 
dritch knew they were safe. 

There came a foggy night, when it was impos- 
sible for the army of Meldritch to sec any 
distance from their position. Hardly had the 
morning daAvned again, when they unexpectedly 
came upon a body of Turks, tw^o thousand 
strong. The fog was all in their favor, and they 
charged upon them with fearful effect. From the 
prisoners they took, it was learned that during 
the night Jeremias had stolen around in their 
rear, and would soon be upon them in full vigor 
and vengeance. Still beyond, too, was approach- 
ing an armv of Tartars, numbering at least forty 
thousand. Meldritch instantly perceived the 
necessity of giving battle to the Turks under 
Jeremias before the Tartars could come up and 
join them. And in this juncture Smith's inge- 
nuity as a manufacturer of fireworks came 
C 



62 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

readily to his assistance. Jeremias liad stationed 
liimself at tlie only mountain-pass through which 
they could hope to reach Rottenton, and it could 
be forced only hy some stratagem like that Avhicli 
Smith was j^i'ompt to propose. Accordingly, he 
made a great number of rockets, and secured 
them to the points of their lances ; and, as soon 
as night came on, they pushed forward to effect 
a passage through the gorge. They charged 
furiously with their lances, and, at the right 
moment, the rockets exploded together. The 
suddenness of the encounter, the noise of the 
explosions, the flaming and blazing of the un- 
earthly lights, and the shouts of the excited 
army, so bewildered the horses and men of the 
beleaguering enemy, that they turned and fled 
in the utmost fear and consternation. The pass 
was thus carried without the least trouble, and 
almost ^vithout any action with the enemy 
whatever. 

Still the forty thousand Tartars lay beyond. 
Before they could hope to reach the town that 
was looked to as their refuge, they knew they 
must make their way through this body of bar- 
barians. Meldritch pressed on, however, and 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 63 

came upon tliem about nino miles from E-otten- 
ton. He saw there was no hope for him but in 
meeting the danger bravely ; for this was the 
only way by which he could reach the town, and 
the thought of flight was out of the question. 
The position was between the mountain called 
Rottenton and a little river. The Christians put 
themselves in readiness for the encounter, though 
they knew that to the larger portion of them it 
would be the last in which they would ever en- 
gage. At the base of the mountain Meldritch 
drew up his little army, driving into the earth 
stout stakes, that had been hardened in the lire, 
as a protection in moments of great harassment 
or of special danger. These stakes were sharp- 
ened, and all pointed outward, to j^revent the 
enemy from either approaching their front or 
turning their flank. 

The battle was not begun until the middle of 
the day, when the Tartars drove upon them like 
an infuriated storm. They were gallantly driven 
back, and immediately a fresh reinforcement was 
rained on the devoted army with redoubled- vigor. 
For an hour this kind of fighting was kept up, the 
Tartar forces alternately driving on and being 



64 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

driven back. Then the Christians felt their 
strength giving out, and, according to j)revious 
orders, they took refuge behind the pahsade of 
sharpened stakes. But even this defence v^as 
sHght,and afforded them only a temporary shelter. 
So dense became the crowds of the enemy, so 
hotly did they push on to meet their entrenclicd 
foe, and with such madness were they incited to 
carry the contest to the most bloody and unmer- 
ciful extremity, that Meldritch at once drc^v 
together his choicest troops, and told them 
there Avas nothing left them but to cut their way 
through the swarming hosts before them. And 
forthwith he issued the order for the almost 
hopeless charge. 

Meldritch himself, with some fourteen hundred 
horsemen, managed to fight their passage through 
the enemy, and cross the little river ; but of the 
rest, very few lived to relate the tale of their 
fearful struggle. The leading officers were all 
cut down in the fight, and noblemen, barons, 
earls, and common soldiers, lay mingled on the 
bloody battle-field together. Tliero ^vcrc left at 
least thirty thousand of the slain of both armies 
on the ground, — a melancholy but fatal prix^f of 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. G5 

tlie desperateness of tliG conflict that had been 
waged. And among the piles of the v\^oiinded 
and the dead lay Smith himself^ shov\^ing that his 
courage had stoutly held out to the last. When 
the victors began their search for living captives 
through the heaps of fallen ones, his costly uni- 
form, and his groans of agony, readily attracted 
their attention. He was badly wounded, but, as 
it happened, not mortally. They took him from 
the field, and bore him away, caring for his inju- 
ries with much tenderness. As soon as he was 
well enough to be marched off with them, he 
was taken, with many other prisoners, to the 
Turkish slave-market, at xVxiopolis, and there 
exposed for sale. A customer was not long in 
making his appearance, whose name was Bashaw 
Bogall. He paid the price asked for the slave, 
and at once sent him away to Constantinople as 
a present to his lady-love, the Lady Tragabig- 
zanda. They were yoked together by twenties, 
and driven off to the crowded Turkish capital. 

The Bashaw Bogall sent a message to his mis- 
tress to the effect that he had himself captured 
this skiVG in war, and that he was a person of 
rank belonging to Bohemia. His object in tell- 



()6 CAPTo JOHN SMITH. 

ing this downriglit falsehood Avas to establish 
himself in higher favor with his chosen fair one. 
He thought that, if she knew something of her 
lover's prowess in battle, he would be able to 
secure a readier and closer access to her heart. 
He evidently counted much on his mistress' 
admiration of his courage and chivalry. But, as 
it turned out, the personal appearance of our 
hero enlisted her sympathies and -her interest 
even more than the dazzling qualities of her 
former lover had done. The lady thought she 
liked Smith about as well as she did tlie Bashaw 
Bogall ; and, being thus interested in him, and 
each of them being able likewise to speak the 
Italian language, she became eager to learn from 
him the story of his capture. When Smith told 
her exactly how it was, and undeceived her in 
her false belief that ho was a Bohemian noble- 
man, her growing indifference to her old lover 
suddenty deepened into a feeling of disgust and 
contempt. Other prisoners, likewise, substan- 
tiated Smith's straight-forAvard story. And, from 
that time, she discarded her former friend, the 
lying and cowardly Bashaw Bogall, and secretly 
became the betrothed of our hero and adventurer. 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 67 

There were beautiful gardens about the Turk- 
ish houses ; and in such places did the Lady 
Tragabigzanda and her slave pass much of their 
time together, talking in the musical Italian 
tongue, and listening to the melody of singing- 
birds and falling waters. To Smith this was a 
delightful period of repose and peace. He felt 
that he was beloved of at least one heart, and 
that in the society of his mistress he could be 
altogether happy. But it was useless for livm to 
count upon repose and quietude. He was made 
for rougli action, and it was soon ready for him 
again to enter upon. The young lady's mother 
had suspected something of this attachment be- 
tween tliem, and now began to show unmistak- 
able signs of her displeasure. As soon as this 
feeling came to the notice of our hero's new 
friend, she determined to be before her mother's 
project, and save her lover from again being 
sold into a strange slavery, by sending him fortli- 
with to her brother, who lived in Tartary. The 
mother was deceived by her daughter's plan, and 
acceded to it as soon as it was proposed. But, 
in order to feel secure of her lover's safety, the 
daughter despatched with him a letter to her 



68 CAPT. JOHx\ SMITH. 

brother, confiding to him the tender relation 
that existed between herself and her slave, and 
begging him to keep the latter in safety until the 
time should arrive when she could be her own 
mistress, or until she should come of age. 

Smith reached his destination, but only to be 
greatly disappointed in the character of the per- 
son to whose keeping he had been entrusted. 
The Turks hated the foreigners with all their 
hearts, and called them everywhere by the name 
of Infidels. The thought of his sister's being 
betrothed to an infidel, therefore, was more than 
the brother could quietly endure. The letter, 
containing the unfortunate confession of attach- 
ment, served but to increase and intensify his 
hate. Instead of taking pains to provide for the 
comfort and safety of our hero, he set to work 
and maliciously placed him in the most galling 
position of servitude. He heaped upon him cruel- 
ties and indignities from which the others were 
apparently free. He administered to liim tlio 
severest punishments, and for no better reason 
than because he cliose to visit him with these 
marks of his anger. The dissatisfaction that he 
felt with his sister's conduct, he seemed' deter- 



ROT.D INTO SLAVEKT. G9 

mined to return in the fornix of increased acmi- 
geance upon the innocent head of his slave. 

For more than six months did our hero sufFer 
in this state of captivity, smarting mider his 
wrongs continuahy. Ah this time he succeeded 
in hearing nothing from the fair sister of his 
oppressor, though he felt that she could kno^v 
nothing of his unhappy condition. In vain had 
he watched and waited for the hour of his de- 
liverance. He saw no relief except iu his own 
strong arm and resolution. But at length the 
opportunity^ offered itself. Smith was at work, 
threshing out corn, in a little house about three 
miles distant from the place Avhere his jnaster 
dwelt. The latter had been unmercifully cruel 
to him for some time previous, and our hero's 
feelinirs were cxceediim-lv irritated in conse- 
quence. On this j)articular day the master and 
the slave happened to be there alone. The 
former, without any cause, began his old pastime 
of flogging Smitli with his whip, when the latter 
suddenly turned upon him furiously Avith his 
flail. His blood was up ; he remembered in that 
single moment all his past wrongs ; the hope of 
freedom once more dawned dehghtfully upon his 



70 CAPT. J0I12s SMITH. 

thoughts ] and he phed liis flail over the head of 
his master with all the strengtli he liad^ and 
speedily beat out the monster's brains. It was a 
deed that had been veiy suddenly coneeived, a.iid 
quite as suddenly executed. 

Instantly he robbed the body of its clothes, 
secreted it under the straw, dressed himself in 
his tyrant's garments, mounted his horse, and 
galloped swiftly away. lie took the precau- 
tion, however, to supply himself with a small 
quantit}' of corn, not knowing to what extremi- 
ties he might be reduced in crossing the vast 
wastes of the uninhabited desert beyond. He 
rode on, and rode on, for three long and Aveary 
days, ignorant of the course that he ought to 
jmrsue, but confiding altogether to the same 
Providence that had so kindly kept him till now. 
At length ho came to a cross, planted like a 
guide-post in tlie desert sand. The Tartars 
erected several signs along their desert routes, 
each one being significant of the character of 
the people towards which it pointed. For exam- 
ple, a cross shoA\X'd the way to a Christian 
country,- — -as this very cross did which Smith so 
fortunately discovered ] a half-moon pointed to 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 71 

Criin Tartary ] a picture of the sun to China ; 
and a black man, covered with white spots, to 
Persia and Georgia. With a heart overflowing 
with thankfulness for so acceptable a sight, lie 
rode swiftly on in the direction which the cross 
indicated, and, after sixteen days of travel and 
fatigue, reached the Russian town of Ecopolis, on 
the banks of the river Don. 

Smith had the happy knack of making friends 
wherever he went ; and in Ecopolis he soon 
found that he had a plenty of them. The Lady 
Callamata took pity on his condition, and exerted 
herself to the utmost to relieve him of his dis- 
tress. She enlisted the sympathies of the gov- 
ernor by her narration of his experience, and 
forthwith measures were put on foot to return 
him to his former friends in Transylvania. The 
governor not only filled his purse with money, 
but likewise furnished him with letters of recom- 
mendation to his own friends in Transylvania, 
and then added an escort to conduct him safely 
along through the country. For the whole 
length of the route his narrative enlists friends 
and sympathizers for him, every one offering 
congratulations at liis escape from such a people 



72 CAPT. joifK ;i:-iiTir. 

as the Tartars. At last ho reached the end of 
his journey, where both of his old friends, Princb 
Sigismnnd and the Earl of Meldritcli^ welcomed 
him with mingled astonishment r^nd joy. They 
certainly believed that he had fallen in the great 
battle before Rottenton, and had monrned him as 
dead long ago. The prince was so overjoyed to 
recover him again, that he made him a present of 
fifteen Imndred dacats, and promised him r.ddi- 
tionally all the assistance he had it in his power 
to bestow. 

With this large accession to his purse, though 
having first recruited himself in the now quiet 
neighborhood of his friends, our hero took his 
leave, and set out on a tour of observation and 
2:>leasuro through Germany, France, and Spain. 
No particular motive actuated him in his travels^ 
unless we allow the desire to see the world to 
be one ; and this desire Smith assuredly pos- 
sessed in the highest degree. He visited every 
city that had an}- attraction for him, loitering 
alonti- by the Avav in the true stvle of an idle 
sight-seer and adventurer. Finally, he found 
himself in Spain. There he heard of the wars 
in Morocco, and resolved. In an impulse, to go 



SOLI) INTO SLAVERY. 73 

over and see for liimself what was likely to como 
of them. BesideSj his funds were gone by this 
timo^ and before he returned to England it was 
very necessary that they should be replenished. 

Falling in with the commander of a French 
A'esscl of war, whose name was Captain JMerham, 
he proceeded on his excursion to Morocco and 
the Barbary coast. The natives at that time 
were engaged in a civil war, and Smith and his 
friend, after looking around, concluded that no 
possible profit could come from mixing them- 
selves up in the troubles. So they wisely 
withdrew, and went on a cruise on their own 
account at sea. 

They sailed along past the Canary Islands, 
nothing occurring to disturb the monotony of 
the voyage until they suddenly came np Arith a 
vessel or two, laden Avith Teneriffe wine ; and 
this seems of a sudden to decide the real charac- 
ter of the vessel in which Smith had embarked. 
Captain Merham was a jnrate, and his conduct 
bears testimony enough against ]iim. The ves- 
sels were captured without opposition, and the 
commander stood on his course again. It was 
not a great while before he espied a couple of 



7-1 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

strange-looking craft, Avhose character lie was 
particularly anxious to make out. So lie crowded 
sail, and hurried away in pursuit. But, before 
ho could be made to understand the danger into 
which he was so thoughtlessly rushing, he dis- 
covered that he had cast himself, as it were, 
into the very jaws of destruction. The t^vo 
strange vessels happened to be Spanish mcn-ol- 
war, and their combined armament was sufficient 
to blow him and his men high and dry out of the 
water 

Merham, seeing his mistake, endeavored to 
make the best of his way out of its troublesome 
consequences. But his better resolution came 
a little too late for him to take proper advan- 
tage of it. The Spaniards at once closed in vrith 
him, and as bloody and desperate a battle as the 
sea has ever Avitnesscd Avas fought for nearly two 
entire days 1 After the first hour's struggle, the 
Spaniard managed to board his enemy, and it 
seemed for a time as if ho must strike his colors 
and yield to the massacre. But the guns of the 
Frenchman kept playing on his antagonist the 
while, and, just at this crisis, it was discovered 
that the boarding vessel was in a sinking con- 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 75 

(lition. Immediately the Frencliman drew off 
from the grapple, and leaving his crippled enemy 
either to sink or repair, just as fortune might 
turn for them, sailed away in the hopes of 
escaping altogether. But the other vessel v/as 
watchful, and innnediately gave chase. They 
fought in an irregular stylo all that afternoon, 
and, at night, the crippled Spaniard having made 
repairs and joined his companion, they both 
chased after the Frenchman again, keeping up 
the hot pursuit till morning. As the day dawned, 
and revealed to them their relative positions, the 
Spaniards came up with their persevering en- 
emy, and again offered battle. 

Before coming to action, however, the French- 
man was summoned to strike his colors, and 
surrender to the Spanish flag. He was offered 
immunity from any further harm on the accept- 
ance of these conditions. But Captain Merham, 
instead of sending back a civil reply, answered 
the proposal with a cannon-ball ! Of course there 
was no more parley, and the two men-of-Avar at 
once closed in and boarded their common enemy. 
On came the Spanish sailors over the decks of 
Captain Merham, pouring in overwhelming num- 



70 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

bers into liis rigging, and dropping his mainsail 
to the dock with a suddenness that rendered the 
vessel quite nnmanageable. In no way could 
they be driven from his deck but by an explo- 
sion ; and this was the fearful alternative to 
which resort was finally had. In an instant the 
enemy were gone ; but Capt. Merham found that 
the firing of his own vessel Avas the price at 
which he was rid of them. Now the Spaniards 
opened a fire upon the burning ship, while its 
occupants were hard at work to quench the 
flames, and unable so much as to return a single 
shot. By dint of almost superhuman exertions 
the fires were extinguished at last, and the 
unyielding Frenchman once more stood bravely 
to his guns. Again the Spaniards summoned their 
enemy to surrender, holding out the same prom- 
ises of quarter as before. But the Frenchman 
answered only from the mouth of his cannon. 

The rest of that day the action was kept up, 
and even the coming on of night did not at once 
bring it to a close. Gun answered briskly to gun, 
and the combatants were as fiercely resolved 
upon each other's destruction as ever. But the 
denser darkness finally separated them, and the 



SOLD INTO SLAVERY. 77 

courageous Frenchman knew that he was beyond 
the reach of his stronger enemy at last. It does 
not require any very great stretch of the imagi- 
nation to picture our hero taking an active part 
in this most protracted and bloody engagement, 
although little is realty known about the service 
which he is supposed to have actually rendered. 
Ho certainly had performed no trifling deeds of 
individual valor on similar occasions before this ; 
and it may readily be conjectured that in this 
affair lie was iiot a Avhit behind the rest, the 
captain himself included, in an activity and a 
daring that alone availed to rescue them from 
the danger into wdiich the}" had so recklessly 
plunged. 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 

TT is very -uncertain how Smith got back to 
England again. We simply know that he 
was there about the time when the project 
of colonizing North America was talked of so 
generally, and that his enthusiastic and courage- 
ous spirit most naturally led him to sympathize 
with the bold plans that were then set on foot. 
In order the better to understand the exact state 
of affairs in England at the time in relation to 
this countr}^, it will be well to briefly review 
what had already been done in the way of colo- 
nization, and take a hasty glance at the nature 
and merits of the designs to establish settle- 
ments on the shores of the American continent. 
Since the discoveries of the Spaniards and 
Portuguese in the southern parts of America, 
and the narration of those bewildering tales that 



TUB SETTLEMEI^'T OF JxVMESTOWN. 79 

were brought back to Europe, and spread all 
over England and the continent, the public mind 
had been very much excited about the Nevv^ 
World, and from time to time many a j^i'ofitless 
expedition had been sent over to obtain tidings 
of the country and its people. The stories of 
Cortez in Mexico, and of Pizarro in Peru, had, 
for years, held a mysterious power over the 
imaginations of men, and they longed to visit 
shores where such golden dreams promised even 
the least degree of realization. The success of 
tliQ Spanish arms in Central and Southern Amer- 
ica fired all hearts. The dazzhng descriptions 
that adventurers gave of such parts of Florida 
as had been visited, and of the shores of that 
lordly stream, — the Mississippi, ■ — completely 
turned their heads, and set people to longing for 
tlie dawn of a day v/hen they could live in such 
a dreamy climate idly and altogether at their 
ease. Tales, too, were told of the vast mineral 
wealth of America, as if the very earth itself 
were of gold and silver, and beds of precious 
stones were to be had for the digging. 

In addition to these various causes of an 
excited public feeling in Europe, the English 



80 C^APT. JOHN SMITH. 

were possessed with tlio idea of discovering a 
Nortli-west Passage to India ; and now for sev- 
eral years they had been sending out vessels to 
establish snch a passage beyond a doubt. Eng- 
land w^as likev\dse jealous in the extreme of the 
success of Spain in her maritime adventures^ and 
desired to place herself on at least an equal foot- 
ings both in the New World and on the seaSj 
with her old enemy and rival. Her leading men 
thought there must be large accumulations of 
gold in lands lying north of Hudson's Straits. 
Accordingly, English vessels. were to be found 
all about in the higher northern latitudes of the 
American continent, floating in and out the bays 
of Newfoundland, as well as among the Spanish 
ships in the neighborhood of Central America. 
Admiral Frobisher was exploring the coasts of 
Labrador, hoping to fall upon mines of wealth 
untold. Sir Humphrey Gilbert united with his 
step-brother. Sir Walter Raleigh, in an expedi- 
tion, in the year 1578, and they got ready for 
sea. The expedition proved very unfortunate, 
however, many of the men having deserted, and 
the vessels returned again into port. A second 
fleet of five ships was afterwards fitted out, and 



THE SETTLEMENT OP JAMESTOWN. 81 

Gilbert took command. The adventure seemed 
to be disastrous from its beginning. Sickness 
broke out on board one of the vessels, and she 
had to return. He proceeded with the rest, and 
before long arrived at Newfoundland, of which 
he took possession in the name of Queen Eliza- 
beth. There he was obliged to abandon one of 
his remaining four ships, and soon after another 
foundered somewhere off the coast of Maine, 
Then disaffection began to prevail among his 
company, and finally a regular mutiny broke out. 
The men compelled him to give over any further 
design of prosecuting his voyage, and to prom- 
ise to return with them at once to England. 
But for this violent interference, he would have 
proceeded further south, and, doubtless, settled 
somoYvhere along the Atlantic coast. He was 
seen for the last time on the deck of his little 
vessel, which was only about twice the length of 
the long-bo^it of a merchant-ship, trying to keep 
up the spirits of his crew, and telling them that 
they were "as near Heaven by sea as by land." 
The night passed, during the whole of which a 
fearful storm was raging ; and in the morning no 
trace of the devoted little bark was to be seen. 



82 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

With her brave commander, and her frightened 
crew, she had gone down beneath the waters 
forever. 

Raleigh had been wonderfully interested in 
these American expeditions from his earliest 
youth ; and now he resolved still a third time to 
set one on foot, nothing daunted in his designs 
by the unhappy fate of his step-brother. The 
expense was wholly paid out of his own purse, 
and he meant that the glory should be his own, 
too. Two of his vessels, commanded by Cap- 
tains Armidas and Barlow, reached the Carolina 
coast on the second of July, 1584, and pene- 
trated Ocrakoke Inlet, taking possession of the 
country in the name of their virgin queen, and 
naming it after her, Virginia. Their descrip- 
tion of the region is romantic in the extreme. 
They described the air as being filled with the 
most delicious fragrance, — the trees as being 
gigantic oaks, sweet-smelling trees, and aromatic 
cedars, about whose branches and trunks wild 
vines were twining and hanging in graceful 
wreaths and festoons, — the fruits along the 
shores as being thick clusters of grapes that 
darkened the ground, and dipped their purple 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 83 

wealth into the laving waters of the sea, — and 
the arbors in the woods as being so dark and 
shaded that the brightness of a hot midsummer 
Sim conld not penetrate to their refreshing shad- 
ows. They also spoke of the natives of the 
comitry in the same poetic and highly-colored 
strain ; representing them to be a singularly 
peaceful and harmless race of beings, who 
seemed to be enjoying in their own silent for- 
ests an existence that might well be called free 
and blessed. 

"When they came back to England with these 
stories, it is easy to believe that the feelings of 
all v/ho heard them were excited to an unusual 
degree. Sir Walter Raleigh, the planner of the 
expedition, was especially dehghted. The queen 
was not less so, and bestowed on him fresh marks 
of her royal favor. Immediately, therefore, he 
equipped another small fleet, this time taking 
care to send out with it such men and families as 
were willing to settle permanently in the new 
country. There were one hundred and eight of 
them, in all, with Sir Ralph Lane for their gov- 
ernor. They landed on the island of Roanoke, 
and went to work in earnest to found a colony. 



84 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

But the governor was unfitted for the dn^ection 
of such an adventure, and misfortune was ahuost 
certainly to be expected. Nothing is known of 
the history or fate of the settlement further than 
that during its existence a single female child 
was born among them, to which was given the 
name of " Virginia." Raleigh sent out relief to 
them afterwards ; but the spot was found to 
have been abandoned, and was even then in a 
state of desolate ruin. Had he himself led forth 
the settlers at the outset, their fate might have 
been very different ; but all his individual efforts 
Avere subsequently made in South America, and 
in the neighborhood of Panama. 

Until the year 1602, when Queen Elizabeth 
died, and James of Scotland became king, few, 
if any, attempts at colonizing x^orth America 
were undertaken. In that year, however, one 
Gosnold came over to Virginia, staid a short 
time, and returned with a ship-load of sassafras 
and lumber. Next followed another attempt 
under a man named Pring, who succeeded about 
as well as Gosnold had done, and returned with- 
out disaster. By degrees the idea of the voyage 
became more and more familiar to men's minds. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 85 

They looked at the possible results of such expe- 
ditions from more practical points of view. The 
former romantic and improbable descriptions of 
the new region had, in a great measure, lost their 
influence, and the projects for colonization had 
changed their character of vagueness and dream- 
iness, and assumed the shape of sober and serious 
facts, such as Avcro capable of being actually 
attained. 

This Avas the time v/hen John Smith happened 
to return to England from his extended travels 
and experiences abroad ; and certainly it seemed 
as if now the man and the occasion had, by great 
good fortune, come together. He was but little 
over twcnty-flvc years old, and his manly ener- 
gies Vvxrc very fully developed. He had seen 
enough of rugged life on the continent to fit him 
for any expedition, however trying to his powers 
of endurance. His courage and his temper had 
gone through the most flery trials, and out of 
them all he had come with increased strength 
and self-command. As it happened, too, a now 
expedition was planning now for Virginia, and 
Smith was the man of all others to help give it 
practical shape and character. 
8 



86 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

With Gosnold and others he succeeded^ after 
a long and tedious delay, in procuring a grant 
for their company, which was called a Patent ; 
and a sufficient number of the nobility and 
wealthy merchants furnished the expedition with 
supplies. This patent gave the company a largo 
tract of land on the coast of America from the 
thirty-fourth to the thirty-eighth degree of north 
latitude, together with all the islands within a 
hundred miles of the .':;Iiorc. The king reserved 
to himself, however, the final authority over the 
country, wishing to make and unmake its officers 
just as he chose, and selfishly grasping for what- 
ever revenues were likely to accrue after its 
thorough settlement. So that, after all, this com- 
pany was' nothing more than a mercantile adven- 
ture, without any actual powers of its own, 
and dependent entirely upon the pleasure of 
the whimsical Idng for its existence and con- 
tinuation. 

The names of both the governor and council 
Vv^ere scaled up in a chest before they took their 
departure, with strict orders not to open the 
same until they should have landed in Virginia. 
The company consisted of one hundred and five 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 87 

men, of whom forty-eight were gentlemen, and 
but a single one a regular saUor ! They had but 
three small vessels, the largest of which did not 
measure more than a hundred tons' burthen. 
Captain Christopher Newport, an old and expe- 
rienced sailor, was their commander. 

On the nineteenth day of December, in the 
year 1606, the motley little party of adventur- 
ers set sail. Grander enterprises are rarely 
begun with more trifling materials, although his- 
tory abundantly shows that great results have 
invariably grown out of the smallest beginnings 
the world over. For six long weeks they did 
not lose sight of the English shore, being de- 
tained by storms and opposing winds. The men 
got into disputes and wrangles in the mean while, 
and it took all the persuasive power of the clergy- 
man on board, whose name was Hunt, to joreserve 
the peace. They knew that the real officers of 
the expedition would not be known until the box 
was opened in Virginia, and were not, therefore, 
disposed to obey any authority until that time. 
Of course a man like Smith would not be likely 
to be long silent during the prevalence of such 
troubles ; and it was not a great while before he 



88 CAPT. JOHN SMITIL 

drew upon himself the ill-will and vengeance of 
all the mischief-makers in the company. Grrad- 
■ually this feeling spread among the leaders of the 
expedition, and he fonnd himself at length the 
object of almost nniversal jealousy and hatred. 
No doubt the mutineers disliked him for his 
remarkable energy in quelling a disturbance ; 
whilcj on the other hand, he was odious to the 
leaders, because of the superior spirit and expe- 
rience which he could not have failed to betray 
from the beginning. 

At length they found themselves off the Ca- 
nary Islands, which lie near the western coast 
of Africa. By this time the bad feeling broke 
forth in acts of hostility and violence. One tri- 
fling pretext after another was offered for the 
stej^s they were about to take, and they believed, 
in their short-sightedness, that such were suffi- 
cient to uphold them in their tyranny. They 
concerted the plan secretly among themselves, 
and, before ho could have suspected what was 
coming. Smith suddenly found himself arrested, 
and in chains ! Some of them openly charged 
him with treason to the king, explaining that ho 
intended to murder the leaders, and usurp the 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 89 

entire government. But liow lie was to get the 
control of three different vessels at the same 
moment, does not so readily appear. He quietly 
submitted, however, to their cowardly treatment, 
knowing well enough that his own turn would 
come by and by. He lost nothing of his even 
temper, but waited for a change in perfect peace. 

They kept him in irons for thirteen weeks, 
proceeding to the West India Islands in the mean 
time, stopping to take in Avater, trading with the 
natives, and spending at least three weeks on 
shore. Smith enjoyed no liberty with them 
there, however, but remained closely confined 
all the time they were revelling in the balmy 
airs of these tropical latitudes. Still he mur- 
mured not at their cruelties. He had long before 
learned how to endure a slavery far more lan- 
guishing and hopeless than that. 

"When they sailed again from the West Indies, 
they steered northward in the direction of the 
island of Roanoke. Gosnold, who was one of 
the company, had, as we have seen, been there 
before. The reason of their sailing so much out 
of the way as to the West India Islands, was, 
that the more direct route had not then been dis- 
8- 



90 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

covered ; this was the track to the New AYorlcl 
that Columbus himself had first marked out, and 
they felt safe in following along after him. As 
they kept on their way, they found to their 
dismay, after a time, that they had lost their 
reckoning. They knew they ought to be some- 
where in the vicinity of Roanoke, yet they could 
not see the first signs of land. The men became 
alarmed and dissatisfied. Finally they began to 
talk among themselves of going home again, and 
even insisted on being taken back to England. 
It was no more than might well have been 
expected from the greater part of them 5 but it 
seemed that they were not, after all, to have 
their OAvn way. At this crisis they were over- 
taken by a tempest, and, for a part of a day, and 
during one entire night, they were driven along 
before the fury of the storm whithersoever it 
chanced to carry them. 

Providence held this seed of a mighty nation 
safely in the hollow of his hand. They were 
drifted into the quiet waters of Chesapeake 
Bay, greatly to their joy and the dissipation of 
their fears. The word Chesapeake, in the Indian 
tongue, signifies the "mother of waters." In 



THE SETTLEMENT OP JAMESTOWN. 91 

their case, at least, it seemed a singularly appro- 
priate appellation. The point of land which they 
passed on their left hand, as they w^ent within the 
bay, they called Cape Henry : and to that on the 
right hand, or the northern side, they gave the 
name of Cape Charles. Then, as they entered 
James River, — which was then called PoAvhatan 
Eiver, in honor of the Indian sovereign of the 
country, — they dropped their anchors within a 
quiet little harbor, that was protected from the 
swell of the outer bay by a jutting point of land ; 
and ujDon this point of land they bestowed the 
name of Point Comfort. After their varied for- 
tunes on the ocean, it must have been a place of 
comfort to them, indeed. 

This was further than Europeans had ever 
before penetrated into the country. Expecting 
at the beginning of their voyage to plant them- 
selves upon an island that was already pretty 
well known to the adventurers of England, they 
found in the end that they had been directed by 
a wiser power than their ow^n within the bays 
and rivers of the vast continent, whence would 
proceed in the lapse of time such gigantic influ- 
ences as would first settle, and then civilize a 



92 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

trackless and unmeasured wilderness. The scen- 
ery on the river shores was beautiful in the 
extreme. The grand old trees, that had been 
growing unhewn for a long line of generations ; 
the silent and mysterious forest solitudes, within 
whose profound depths no paths were ready to 
conduct their eyes or their feet ; the luxuriant 
foliage, clothing the stately trees in a dress of 
matchless splendor, and fringing the river-banks 
so deeply as to trail its emerald wealth far along 
the course of the flowing stream; the far-reaching 
expanse of hill and valley, all darkened with the 
growth of innumerable trees, and shrubs, and 
vines ; these things wrought silently and secretly 
upon their bewildered minds, and they could not 
help feeling as if they had found the true Eden- 
spot of the world at last. No fancies could 
properly answer to the realities everywhere 
around them, except such as from their very 
youth had been inseparable from pictures of 
Paradise and Heaven. They looked over the 
green earth about them, now clad in the rich 
verdure of a new spring, and nothing seemed 
Avanting to complete the illusion that an inflamed 
imagination was ready to demand. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 93 

Agreeably to tlieir directions, they proceeded 
in the first place to open the sealed box and 
ascertain who were to be officers of the colony. 
So the precious box was broken open on the 
night they reached the shore, and the facts of 
the case duly set before the various members 
of the company. By the instructions contained 
within, they were to be governed by a President 
and Council. The names of the Council were 
Wingfield, Gosnold, John Smith, Captain New- 
port, Eadcliffe, Martin, and Kendall. They were 
cmpow^ered to elect tlieir own President, and to 
hold their office for the term of one year. Smith, 
however, was not admitted to his seat in the 
Council, but was still kept in confinement on 
board one of the vessels in the river. 

For nearly three weeks the company were 
employed in looking about them for a proper 
place for a settlement. In the course of their 
wanderings and their search, they came upon 
beds of oysters, lying as thickly together as it 
was possible to pack them ; they likewise were 
regaled with the sight of most beautiful flowers, 
of various kinds and colors ; they picked blush- 
ing strawberries from the woodland hillsides, 



94 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

redder and sweeter than tlie same fruit could be 
found in England ; and of the valuable trees 
wliicli came under tlieir observation were many 
sturdy stems of the cedar and the cypress. They 
fell in with savages, too, who were natives of the 
region ; and the Indians treated them kindly at 
first, showing them their cornfields, that were 
just becoming green with the bursting blades, 
and offering them their pipes to smoke as they 
gathered in friendly groups beneath the trees. 
The settlers likewise went to the Indian villages, 
where they were treated with continued kind- 
ness, and where they learned to eat hominy and 
smoke the weed of Virginia. One of the party 
afterwards described an Indian chief in these 
words : ^^ His body was painted all with crimson, 
with a chain of beads about his neck ; his face 
painted blue, besprinkled with silver ore, as avo 
thought ; his ears all behung vrith bracelets of 
pearl, and in either ear a bird's claw through it, 
beset with fine copper or gold. He entertained 
us in so modest a proud fashion, as though ho 
had been a prince of civil government." The 
same writer added that the rest of the Indians 
'^ were armed with bows and arrows in a most 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 95 

warlike manner, with the swords at their backs 
beset with sharp stones and pieces of iron, able 
to cleave a man in sunder." 

The vessels sailed up the river forty miles, and 
finally anchored. On the north side of the river 
was a peninsula ; and here they resolved to set- 
tle, thinking that in the course of time a great 
city would grow up from this modest beginning. 
As they had re-named the river the James Eiver, 
from their sovereign at home, so they called their 
settlement Jamestown, after him likewise. It 
was on the thirteenth day of May, in the year 
1607, when they began to clear away the trees 
for the new city ; and on that remarkable day a 
new and bright leaf wais added to the history of 
the world. 

As soon as they had determined on a site for 
their settlement, tlie Council met together and 
elected one of their number President. The 
office fell to Wingfield, wdio immediately took 
the required oath, and, in turn, administered it 
to the several members of the Council. Smith 
was carefully excluded from his seat at the 
board, inasmuch as the charges of insubordina- 
tion and treason were still pending against him. 



96 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

It really seems strange to iiii, looking back at the 
affair from this point in our liistory, how sober- 
minded men could ever have been so narrow and 
selfish in their conduct, or how they could have 
allowed themselves to be influenced by such tri- 
fling considerations as either jealousy or fear of 
a person like our adventurer. But such was the 
course which they saw fit to pursue, and they 
have left us at perfect liberty to characterize 
their motives as severely as we see fit. Still 
Smith makes no sort of complaint. lie is patient 
and peaceful in his lengthened imprisonment. 
He merely awaits the a^pproach of the proper 
moment to assert his innocence, husbanding his 
energies and his temper together. 

But, as the daily work about the settlement 
progresses, it is found that the services of a 
clear head, and a stout arm, like those of Smith, 
cannot so easily be spared. Accordingly, ho is 
removed from on board the vessel in the river, 
and set to work Avith the rest. Like a true and 
noble-] learted man, instead of now refusing to 
help them in their need, or laboring only to as 
little purpose as he can consistently with their 
commands, he takes hold with a sturdy energy 



THE SETTLEMENT OP JAMESTOWN. ^7 

c/ncl a vigorous wiil^ and oven shames tlio slower 
Avorkers into something like what he considers a 
commendable activity. lie turns- hi,j ];and cheer- 
fully and earnestly to v.diatcver is required- Ho 
helps cut dov\^n the huge trees to be split into 
clapboards, and assists in erecting huts and wig- 
v/ams. It is a busy scene, indeed, vfitli the 
vdiole settlement just at this particular time. 
Could a painter have been there to picture it 
faithfully on canvas, it would have come down 
to our time with a greater command on our 
admiration than all the frescos and pictures of 
Madonnas that crowd • the v/alls and ceilings of 
Italy. Men hewing logs, and splitting them into 
boards ; some laying out garden-plots, to be 
planted as soon as the ground can be broken to 
receive the seed ; some trapping birds and w^ild 
fowl along the shores ; some making nets with 
which to take the fish from the river; some 
working upon the huts and the vrigvaims, eager 
to erect the roof to which they may give the 
endeared name of home ; and all thus active and 
industrious in the shadows of an impenetrable 
forest, strangers to the wild shore on which they 
have just landed, heedless of the many dangers 



98 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

that lurk in tho solitudes around tliem, and 
absorbed only in the plans that for the time 
have taken possession of their hearts^ — the 
scene certainly is one most strildngly picturesque 
in its character, and would delight many an eye 
could it be properly expressed by the pencil of 
the painter. 

Pretty soon the plan was proposed that a part 
of the colony should go on a tour of observa- 
tion still further up the river, to discover with 
what kind of people they wxre surrounded, and, 
if possible, to make terms of permanent friend- 
ship with the various Indian tribes in the region. 
Captain Newport was detailed for this expedi- 
tion, with twenty men under him ; and Smith 
was among the number. Nothing further was 
said at that time about the trial of the latter on 
the charges they had brought against him, and 
he offered no opposition to their plan of sending 
him away with the company of explorers. 

They sailed up the river until they came to 
tlio village where Powhatan, the great Indian 
chief, then dwelt. The spot was but a short dis- 
tance below where Richmond now is, and near 
the falls in the river. At the time the English 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOV/N. 09 

first saw Powhatan, ho Avas about sixty years 
old. In person he was very tall and well-pro- 
portioned; '^ with a stern countenance, a head 
somewhat gray, his beard quite thin and insig- 
nificant, his limbs straight, his person erect, of 
an able and hardy frame, and equal to any labor." 
The adventurers were much impressed with, his 
appearance. He had two thousand warriors, that 
he could at any moment bring into the field, and 
his dominion extended for sixty miles in every 
direction around him. He had a guard of fifty 
of the tallest savages about him continually, who 
protected his person by day and by night from 
the approach of any harm from his enemies. 

When the little party of white men drew near, 
he received them with the most stately civility 
imaginable. He evidently set a great value on 
external ceremonies. Some of his warriors were 
disposed to murmur, as the colonists begged for 
what land they wanted ; but Povsdiatan at once 
silenced them, exclaiming, in reply, " They only 
want a little land ! They will do us no harm ! " 
Events afterwards showed that he v^as fully as 
suspicious of the whites as his Avarriors ever 
were ; but he knew better how to disguise his 



100 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

feelings, and showed to great advantage what 
the world is j)l^^sed to call a most shrewd 
20olicy, and Avliat some men consider a far-seeing 
statesman shi2J. The only method by v/hich ho 
would ever wish to uproot them from the soil 
was the one best known to the savage, and most 
strikingly characteristic of his nature. It was 
by treaclierTj. 

So he feasted and amused them all as long as 
they saw fit to remain. He set before them the 
daintiest products of the vroods, the fields, and 
the rivers ; and they made him presents in re- 
turn of beads, and bells, of needles, and looking, 
glasses, and other trinkets of equal value. The 
Indians were highly delighted with these trifling 
gifts, betraying their joy in the wildest and most 
irrational manner. When they expressed their 
wish to go still further up the river, Powhatan 
offered them a guide to show them the way, 
requiring them, however, to leave one of their 
number with him as a pledge of tlicir safe return 
Vvdth the guide. 

All the way along the course of the river 
Smith v»^as an acute and studious observer. 
Nothing of even the most trifling importance 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOVvN. 10 i 

seemed to escape his eye. He had acquired so 
valuable a habit during his experiences against 
the Turks, and especially while a prisoner among 
the Turks and Tartars. In due time they landed 
their guide again, on their return, at the hamlet 
of Powhatan, took on board their own compan- 
ion, and sailed forthwith to Jamestown. If the 
reader will recur to the map of Virginia now, 
and see how all these points already described 
are situated, his interest in the narrative, at 
the present stage of it, cannot but be greatly 
increased. 

At Jamestown trouble had unexpectedly 
arisen. The President was not a man qualified 
to lead or govern a mixed company of settlers, 
and the fact began speedily to make itself known. 
He tried to stop their building any more on the 
fort that had been begun, and said there was no 
need of any such fortifications. So that what 
really was built of it vv^as done against his com- 
mands, and in spite of his authority. The set- 
tlers managed to enclose a space in the shape of 
a half-moon, using nothing but boughs of trees 
and such like loose materials ; and this was the 
only protection they had against their enemies. 
9-^ 



102 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

It was hardly better than nothing ; but Wingiield 
thought it vastly more than sufficient. He pre- 
tended that there was nothing to be feared from 
the Indians, and styled their rude and hastily- 
constructed fort a piece of downright folly. 

So it might have been, had there been none 
but inoffensive neighbors around them. But it 
was not long before even his obstinacy was 
compelled to yield to the sternness of unhappy 
facts. The Indians, true to their innate duplic- 
ity, stealthily came upon the little settlement in 
a body numbering at least four or live hundred, 
determined to surprise and cut them off by a 
single blow ; and, had it not JDeen for the for- 
tunate interference of the vessels anchored in 
the river, that brought their guns to bear on 
the enemy without any delay, the v/hole colony 
would, no doubt, have been swept away in the 
space of a very few hours. The chain-shot from 
the guns went crashing through the trees, over 
the heads of the savages, and, in their sudden 
terror at the strange sound, they fled back into 
the forests with a speed that only those A\dio 
have seen Indians run, can well imagine. At 
the moment of this attack from the Indians, the 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 103 

settlers happened to be scattered in various 
directions, and tlieir destruction would have 
been as easy as it must have been unexpected. 
The need of a stout fort was, therefore, thor- 
oughly established by this unlooked-for incident, 
and they fell to work with increased vigor on its 
rapid construction. Besides, there was another 
reason for being expeditious in the matter : many 
of the Council were themselves personally injured 
by the attack, and that brought the subject home 
to their own fears. It was an argument which 
they did not seem to know how to resist. 

So a sufficient fortification was speedily erect- 
ed, and guns were properly mounted within its 
enclosure. But not a moment too soon. The 
Indians had, by this time, recovered in a good 
degree from their former terror, and came back 
in roving and irregular bands to renew their old 
animosities. Nothing in the world but their 
dread of this mysterious fort, and the unknown 
thunder it contained, kept them at a safe dis- 
tance, and enabled the colonists to push forward 
the domestic affairs of the settlement. 

Captain Newport was, by this time, ready to 
return to England with his freights of lumber 



104 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

and sassafras ; and now the Council resolved to 
send back Smith with him^ to take his trial there 
on the old charge of treason. If he was to be 
tried at all^ the Council were certainly themselves 
competent to perform that unpleasant duty ; but 
they preferred to get their intended victim off 
out of their way^ where the evidence against 
him Vv^ould be but vague and shadowy, and his 
condemnation would not be so apt to affect the 
minds of the men with sympathy. Smith knew 
his rights, and he felt that the time had at last 
come for him to assert them. He refused, at any 
hazard, to be carried back to England, and boldly 
and defiantly demanded his trial on the spot, and 
without delay. During his long confinement, 
and while he had been at work with the rest on 
shore, he had worn away the gTcater part of their 
prejudices against him, so that the settlers were 
not backward in seconding his demand for an 
immediate trial there. The Council dared not 
disobe}^, and the ceremony was forthwith gone 
through with. For Smith it was a downright 
triumph. Pie Avas not only himself acquitted 
of treason, but he succeeded in fastening the 
charges of malice and false imprisonment upon 



THE SETTLEMENT OF JAMESTOWN. 105 

the President ; and the latter was compelled to 
pay the sufferer a fine of two hundred pounds, 
or a thousand dollars. Smith gave the money 
into the common treasury, and was at once 
allowed to take his seat in the Council. Mr. 
Hunt, the minister, preached a pointed sermon 
on the following Sabbath, in wliich he alluded to 
the unhappiness of strifes and jealousies, and 
all partook of the Holy Communion together. 
Peace was immediately declared w^ith the In- 
dians, too ; and, under such happy auspices, 
Captain Newport sailed for England, promising 
in twenty w^eeks to be back again. 



CHAPTER y. 

LIFE IN THE COLONY. 

WHEN Captain Newport sailed for Eng- 
land, it was about the middle of June. 
The summer was a great deal warmer 
than in the colonists' native land, and they were 
able to endure the heat only Avith much diffi- 
culty, which afterwards took the shape of down- 
right suffering. Their excessive labors in a new 
and strange climate had debilitated them to an 
incredible degree. Added to this, the provisions, 
which for as many as six months had lain in the 
hot and stifled holds of the A'-essels, now began 
to show signs of worthlessness,- — •some of the 
grain becoming too mouldy or sour to be worth 
using, and the rest of it swarming v/ith destroy- 
ing worms and insects. They had nothing else 
laid aside for their need, and the harvest-time 
was yet a great way off The vessels, too, were 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 107 

gone, with tlieir variety of small stores, such as 
liquors and ship's biscuits ; and they could not 
now row from the shore to their decks, as for- 
merly, to obtain such trifling comforts as they had 
been in the habit of using. Perhaps they missed 
the presence of the ships more than anything 
else. Having landed so late in the spring, too, 
they had planted their crops much out of season ; 
and it was doubtful if they had a right to expect 
]iiore than half a harvest, after all. 

Reduced to such straits in the matter of sup- 
plies. President Wingfield doled out to them day 
after day exactly so much wheat, and so much 
barley ; but their indignation was very naturally 
aroused when they made the discover}^ that all 
this time he did not once think of shortening his 
own rations. He helped himself bountifully to 
the best there was left, while he was thus slowly 
starving the rest on miserably short alloAvances. 
Such wretched fire, and especially so little as 
there was of it, very soon began to do its v/orl^ 
upon the health of the settlers. They were still 
obliged to labor hard about the settlement, and 
watch, with their former vigilance, day and night, 
against the treacherous Indians ; and this labor 



108 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

and watching, united with poor and insufficient 
food, veiy soon made havoc with their once 
rugged constitutions. Thej grew so Aveak as to 
be unable ahuost to stand. Out of one hundred 
men that still remained in the little colony, fifty 
shortly died, and their heaped mounds formed 
the first English grave-yard in America. Of the 
Council, Gosnold died, and all the rest were 
sick except Wingfield. His better fare probably 
saved him from their pitiful extremity. About 
fifty now remained living, and very soon all the 
rest of the food that could be eaten Avas dis- 
patched by them ; and, from late in June until 
September, all the resources they had to rely 
upon Avere such kinds of fish as could be seined 
or caught along the shore and in the river. 

President Wingfield, right in the midst of this 
suffering, fearing lest he might himself come to 
destitution in the end, like the coAvard he really 
Avas, secretly j^lotted the design of taking the 
pinnace, that had been left behind for the uses of 
the colony, and fleeing to England. Others Avere 
of course cng-aged AA^ith him in so nefarious a 
plan-, but they rather obeyed him as their leader. 
He Avas responsible chiefly for the design. As 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 109 

soon as his purpose became known, so indig- 
nant wore the colonists that they removed him 
without any further ceremony from his office of 
President, and elected Radcliffe to his place. 
Radcliffe, as it happened, was not a man of 
very great activity, judgment, or administrative 
power. He was easy and indolent, and too apt 
to let things take their own undirected course ; 
so he naturally stood aside for the superior influ- 
ence and energy of Smith ; and, in the end, the 
latter became the acting President of the colony. 
Without any question, he should have had the 
office conferred upon him in the first place. He 
alone of all the company seemed to j)ossess those 
rare qualities that are so necessary to make true 
leaders, and to conduct bold adventures like the 
present to a successful issue. 

Sick and debilitated as he was, Smith never- 
theless went to work in downright earnest, and 
shoAved them exactly what sort of stuff his rug- 
ged character was made of. He appealed to the 
men in every manner to induce them to wake up 
from the fatal lethargy in which long illness was 
sinking all their energies, and to incite them to 
such active labor as the interests of the settle- 
10 



110 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

ment at that time so sorely required. Their 
tents, aud huts, and wigwams, and houses, were 
in the most dilapidated condition, fast running to 
ruin like their own constitutions. They them- 
selves had begun to yield to despair, and felt 
loth to perform any further labor even to save 
themselves from absolute starvation. Not every 
one could have brought up such an unhappy 
body of men again from their sad situation. But 
Smith was one of the few natural leaders who 
possessed this fortunate power. He begged 
them, and besought them ; he promised, and he 
held out fine inducements ; and, to crown all, he 
set them the example himself of what he desired, 
by stripping off his coat and laboring, enfeebled 
though he was, harder than he asked of any of 
them. At last they fell to with some degree of 
spirit, and then a happy change began slowly to 
come over the affairs of the settlement again. 
The dwellings put on renewed looks ; the people 
wore more cheerful foces ; the continued peace- 
fulness of the Indians lent assurance to their 
hearts ; and the prospects of the little colony 
brightened beyond what any one a little while 
before would have dared to hope. 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. Ill 

Gosnold was dead, — Newport had gone with 
the ships to England, — Kendall, who was con- 
cerned in the design of Wingfield to desert the 
colony, was expelled from the Council, together 
with its former President, — and now only Rad- 
cliffe. Smith, and Martin, were left to carry on 
the government. EadcliiFe and Martin were sick, 
and Smith was the sole and supreme manager of 
all the affairs of the settlement. 

The Indians from time to time brought in corn 
to barter with the English for their trinkets and 
baubles, and for a while the latter were provi- 
dentially saved from utter v/ant. But Smith 
determined that they should not suffer again 
from scarce supplies, if his activity could pro- 
vide against it; and, accordingly, he proceeded 
to measure out what was already on hand, in 
order to ascertain just how long it would be 
likely to last. It was found there was enough for 
about eighteen days. Satisfied of their future 
need, he prepared to set out without delay in 
quest of more among the Indians. He took with 
him seven men, and an assortment of trinkets for 
barter, and sailed down the river in the pinnace 
to its mouth. On the spot where Hampton now 



112 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

stands, at the outlet of James River, tlien stood 
an Indian village, called Kecouglitan. Without 
further ceremonyj on reaching this village he 
made ready to land. The Indians, it appears, 
very well knew what he had come for, for they 
had been informed — through their spies, no 
doubt — of the recent sad condition of the col- 
ony ; so they ranged themselves along the shore, 
and contemptuously offered the party refuse 
scraps of bread in exchange for their guns and 
swords. Smith tried in every manner to induce 
them to trade, but they insultingly refused. He 
remembered the straits to which the colony were 
reduced, and knoAV very well that at some rate 
or another he must obtain the grain he had come 
in quest of The settlers must not be permitted 
to suffer, so long as there was an abundance of 
food to be had in the vicinity. So, seeing that 
the savages still persisted in their refusal to 
trade, or in fact to come to any understanding at 
all. Smith resolved to impress them with an unex- 
pected sense of his power, hoping by the means 
to bring them to some sort of terms. Accord- 
ingly, the men fired off the contents of their 
muskets over the heads of the natives, frighten- 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 113 

m^ tliem almost out of tlieir wits with tlio sound 
of the discharge, and compelhng them to take to 
the Avoods as fast as thej couki scamper. The 
j)arty immediately landed then, and marched up 
to the village very speedily. 

But the Indians, seeing that they were all 
more frightened than hurt, soon returned to 
offer their invaders battle. There were about 
seventy of them in all, and their appearance was 
frightful to the last degree. With them they 
carried their god, as they always did in battle, 
believing that this senseless idol had a myste- 
rious power for their preservation and success. 
The name of this god was Okee. It was made 
of the skins of animals, painted and ornamented 
after the most grotesque devices. As they rushed 
on to the assault with their hatchets and clubs, 
they counted on an easy victory ; but Smith 
opened on them with the fire of his guns again, 
intending all the while to frighten rather than 
injure them, with the idea thus to bring them to 
their soberer senses. In the melee the idol was 
captured, and then the Indians were in a state 
of terrible anxiety. Instantly they laid aside 
their show of violence, and were disposed to 
10^ 



114 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

forget all their former animosities. They were 
willing to submit now to almost any terms, pro- 
vided they could but recover their stuffed and 
painted idol, Okee. Smith saw that he had them 
at his own advantage, and resolved to make the 
rnost of it. He communicated to them, by sun- 
dry signs, that they could have their god back 
again, on condition that they would deliver to 
him a certain quantity of grain. They were glad 
enough to accBpt his proposal, and it was not a 
long while before the party found that they not 
only had a boat-load of corn, but as much ven- 
ison and wild turkey as they could carry away 
besides. But Smith was a lover of justice at 
heart, and scorned to take any undue advantage 
of their necessities. It was his wish, likewise, 
to secure this strange people in bonds of perma- 
nent friendship with the colony, and he therefore 
made them presents of such articles as he had 
brought Avith him for the purpcrse of barter, for 
which they testified their gratitude by wildly 
dancing and singing on the beach. 

This was by no means ■ the only expedition on 
which Smith went after supplies of food for the 
colonists. Many and many a one followed close 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 115 

ujion itj during the course of whicli he fell in 
with new villages and other tribes. There was a 
river named the Chickahominy, and on its banks 
dwelt a number of savage bands, with all of 
whom he formed an acquaintance, and succeeded 
in effecting some sort of trade. They received 
him always with respect, regarding him as some 
vastly superior being. They listened to the re- 
ports of his fire-arms with savage superstition, 
and wondered what the man must be who could 
make such instruments of fear obey his single 
will. 

As soon as the people at the settlement began 
to recover their strength, and to find how amply 
they Avere provided for against any immediate 
danger of starvation, they indulged in conduct 
toward their deliverer that was base to the last 
degree. The expelled Wingfield and Kendall 
set a conspiracy against Smith on foot, and 
secured the cooperation of many of the sailors 
— so called — in a plan to steal the pinnace, and 
make the best of their way to England. Hardly 
had Smith returned from the last of his expedi- 
tions, when the plot drew immediately to a 
head. It was betrayed by a mere accident, 



116 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

however^ and by his energetic action was at 
once defeated. 

It appears that one of the conspirators had 
just before attempted an assault on the Presi- 
dentj in consequence of having been pubhcly 
rebuked by him ; and, as a punishment for this 
assault, which would have resulted ni murder 
but for the President's superior activity^ he was 
tried, and condemned to be hung. When he 
stood under the gallows his heart began to fail 
him. He expected that the rest of the conspira- 
tors would certainly come to his rescue ; but, as 
they offered him no assistance in this awful hour 
of need, he cleared his conscience of any further 
guilt in the proceeding by exposing the whole 
affair in the presence of the spectators. The 
others of the guilty party listened in dismay to 
his confession, and instantly betook themselves 
to the boat ; but the energy of Smith was equal 
to the emergency. In an instant he turned upon 
them the guns of the fort, summoning them to 
remain where they were, and threatening, if they 
dared to weigh anchor, to blow them and the 
boat to destruction together. The threat pro- 
duced the effect intended. They at once sur- 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 117 

rendered themselves, and were tried for treason 
to the Council and colony. Wingfield was not 
convictedj probably because of the respect con- 
nected with the office of President which he 
once held ; but Kendall was condemned to be 
shot, and soon after met the fate which both of 
them had, as ringleaders, so richly deserved. 

A second adventure in quest of supplies was, 
before long, undertaken by Smith, up the course 
of the Chickahominy Eiver ; and a second time 
he returned with grain, only to be repaid for his 
harassing labor by the discovery of continued 
insubordination and rebellion. This time, how- 
ever, the conspirators were careful to have a 
show of laiv on their side. All their forms of 
proceeding were strictly legale whether dishon- 
orable or not. Archer — a new member of the 
Council — and the President, Radcliffe, brought 
the matter forward in open council ; and pro- 
posed to quit the settlement, and go back to 
Europe in the pinnace before winter should 
overtake them. In truth, the greater part of 
the colonists were at this time disposed to home- 
sickness, and dreaded to look forward to the 
suffering and short supplies of an inclement Avin- 



118 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

ter. Possibly the project in this shape might 
have met with general favor, but for a happy cir- 
cumstance that just then offered. As it was the 
proper season in Virginia for such an event, as 
if by magic, all the creeks and coves along the 
river became suddenly filled with wild duck and 
geese, of which the settlers could obtain as many 
as they desired for the mere trouble of taking 
them. Deer and other creatures came likewise 
to the banks from the interior of the forests, 
sleek and fat, all ready to be cut into steaks at 
the shortest possible notice. Adding these to 
the supplies which Smith had previously man- 
aged to collect from the various Indian tribes 
about them, it was at once easy to understand 
that there need be no fear from famine, nor from 
suffering of any other character. By degrees, 
as their stomachs filled, their hearts grew strong; 
and the talk about leaving the settlement, and 
getting back to England, in a very little time 
died wholly away. 

Arrangements were therefore soon pushed for- 
ward for the coming winter-life on the banks of 
the James River. Smith was as active as those 
who were the most so in securing all the com- 



LIFE IN THE COLONY. 110 

forts for which there was the least prospect of a 
demand. He saw to it that the granaries were 
properly built and securely protected against 
vermin and damps. He directed about the 
houses and the fort. He gave hints concern- 
ing the clothing of the men, and their furnishing 
themselves with other garments, before the need 
should be imminent, and the time but short in 
which to perform their Avork. In short, his eye 
took in all the possible wants of the vvdiole col- 
ony. No father could have made better pro- 
vision for his own family, than Smith would have 
done for the men who hardly seemed able to take 
care of themselves. 

True to their uneasy natures again, like spoiled 
children they soon began to murmur, demanding 
that he should make another excursion up the 
Chickahominy, and this time sail to the head- 
waters of the river. They entertained an absurd 
fancy that this river would bring them out some- 
vvdiere in the South Seas, which at that period 
had a highly fascinating hold on the minds of 
Europeans, and of Englishmen especially. Smith 
answered them that it vv^as no time to go explor- 
ing for an outlet to the South Seas, it being 



120 CAPT. JOHN SMITH*. 

vastly more important that they should lay in 
larger stores of provision against the coming of 
winter. But they continued to murmur without 
reason. He became heartily sick^ at last; of their 
conduct; and; half in disgust, resolved to attempt 
the voyagO; if only to pacify them. And, taking 
his boat; he set out on the fooPs errand on which 
they had despatched him; feeling almost sure that 
evil; rather than any j^ossible good, would come 
of so blind and purposeless an adventure. 



CHAPTER YI 



CAPTIVITY. 



IT was now close upon the season of winter. 
That winter, too, happened to be one of 
nnusnal severity, even in Virginia. It was 
no less severe in Europe, either. 

Captain Smith turned his prow boldly up the 
Chickahominy, resolute in his plan of accomplish- 
ing something^ he knew not what, by which he 
might be able to silence the distrust and per- 
petual fault-finding of his companions at the 
settlement. For at least fifty good miles he 
kept perseveringly on his way, pushing through 
narrow passages choked with fallen trees, and 
stumps, and brushwood, and steering with great 
care clear of the shoals and opposing bars of 
sand. Having gone this distance, however, he 
found that further course in his boat Avas im- 
peded very effectually. The shoals would not let 
11 



122 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

him float it up any nearer the river's head waters, 
so he Avent ashore, and obtained assistance from 
the Indians that he found in plenty all about 
him. They lent him a light canoe, and furnished 
a couple of their tribe to row it wherever he 
desired. And, taking along with him two men 
from his own boat, he left the others in charge, 
cautioning them not to go on shore during his 
absence, nor to hold communication with any one 
from the bank until his return. 

Twenty miles further up the Indian canoe 
floated them, shooting swiftly and silently along 
the dark stream. His Avatchful eye noted all the 
landmarks on the shores, and his observation was 
as acute as it had ever been in any of his wan- 
derings before. Tlic dim twilight of the forest 
threw him into moods of the pleasantest contem- 
plation. The plash of the waterfowl along the 
shores startled him from his reveries again. 
Here and there dimpling whirlpools and swim- 
ming eddies were formed by the opposing 
branches and tree-trunks in the current, shaping 
his feelings and giving an agreeable motion to 
his thoughts. Finally, when they had gone as 
far as they could well go, and after having fought 



CAPTIVITY. 123 

their way through all such tough opposition as 
sunken logs and interlacing tree-branches offered, 
he took one of the two Indians on shore with 
him, leaving the two white men with the other 
Indian behind in the canoe. He enjoined his com- 
panions to be continually on the look-out, and, 
if any danger threatened, to fire a single musket 
immediately. He proposed himself merely to go 
ashore for a little while with his Indian guide, 
and learn what the nature of the country was, 
and, if possible, find the head waters of the rap- 
idly narrowing stream. 

Hardly tweuty minutes had he been in the 
forest with his guide, when the latter suddenly 
set up a shrill and unearthly cry, called the war- 
whoop, bringing the bold explorer to his wits in 
amazing quick time. Fearing, from this strange 
conduct of the Indian, that some great danger 
was at hand, he instantly seized him and held him 
fast, and, without another moment's hesitation, 
took off his own garter and bound the treacher- 
ous rascal's arm tightly to his own. At the same 
instant an arrow struck him on the thigh, but 
without force enough to do him any injury. He 
saw now that he was waylaid, and that his guide 



124 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Jiad been only his betrayer. He determined that, 
if he was fired at by the savages, his copper- 
colored companion should, at least, take an equal 
chance of harm along with him ; and so he kept 
holding the fellow before him all the while, 
thrusting him between his own breast and the 
enemy like a shield. 

It was not long before the whole Indian am- 
bush discovered itself; and he saw already two 
bows bent to discharge their arrows at him. He 
seized the pistols from his belt, and gave the 
enemy a quick volley, that rather interfered with 
their purposes. The Indians — of whom there 
now appeared a large number — pretty soon 
began to press forward upon him, compelling 
him to use all the dexterity he could command 
to keep them at bay. They were afraid of his 
pistols, and that was a great deal in his favor. 
Besides, he took constant care to keep the Indian 
guide between himself and them. They would 
be very loth to get possession of the adven- 
turer's scalp at the price of the life of one of 
their own number. 

In this state of affairs an Indian chief, named 
Opechancanough, came up, with a large party of 



CAPTIVITY. 125 

two or three Imnclred warriors. Smith knew 
then that his last chance of escape had vanished, 
yet he showed not a whit less courage and self- 
possession than before. They began to shoot 
their arrows carefully at him, and ho fired at 
them in return with his pistols. They would not 
come near enough to him to be within the reach 
of his pistol-shots, and he adroitly managed to 
interpose his own Indian between himself and 
their arrows. Seeing that he stood the test of 
bravery so well, they held a parley. If he would 
at once surrender, they promised that he should 
receive no harm. They told him that the two 
white men in the canoe were killed, and that 
he could escape their fate only by submitting 
peacefully to his capture. Smith was not a little 
staggered to hear of the death of his two com- 
panions, but he utterly refused to listen to any 
proposal to give himself up. As they talked, 
first on this side, and then on that, he likcAvise 
kept slowly retreating, and drawing his Indian 
shield after him, step by step. The savages 
pressed on perseveringly, though they Avere as 
careful as ever to keep out of the reach of his 
weapons. And, as he went on in this backward 



126 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

style, facing only his enemies, and careless of 
the path behind him, suddenly the soft ground 
yielded beneath his feet, and down, down he 
sank in the depths of a wet and cold morass, 
that must have formed one of the looked-for 
sources of the Chickahominy River. Of course 
he dragged in the treacherous Indian guide after 
him ; and there they were together, floundering 
in the water and bog-mud quite up to their arm- 
pits. 

It was folly to think of holding out any longer. 
A surrender was all that could have been ex- 
pected. So he threw his weapons from him 
upon the ground, in token of submission, and 
immediately after they drew him out of his 
uncomfortable bed, covered all over with mud 
and water, and shivering with the cold. Had it 
not been for the rest of the party that he left in 
the boats, all this might never have happened. 
In both the canoe and the boat his cautions to 
them had been utterly unheeded. Those in the 
boat went on shore almost as soon as he had 
fairly landed and got out of sight ; they were 
insane with the idea of themselves striking upon 
some sudden passage to the South Sea, or of 



CAPTIVITY. 127 

finding somewhere in the forest a mountain of 
gUttering gold. Of course they were surprised 
by Opechancanough and his party, for his wary 
spies had had their eyes upon them from the 
beginning. All of them but one managed to 
reach the boat again in safety, and make off in 
Imste from the shore ; but this one was doomed 
to pay the penalty for the presumption of the 
remainder with his life. He begged them not to 
kill him, and promised, if they would not, to tell 
them of the whereabouts of the rest. Having 
extorted this intelligence from him, they cruelly 
put him to death by tearing one limb after 
another from him, and then burning him in the 
fire. They then hurried on after Smith and his 
two white companions in the canoe. These two 
men had gone on shore, likewise, and built a fire 
to warm themselves ; and, while they sat before 
its cheering blaze, dozing and nodding from the 
effects of their long exposure, the savages fell 
upon them with their arrows, and made very 
short work with their lives indeed. Of course 
the other Indian, who had been left in the canoe, 
apprized his companions of the route Smith had 



128 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

taken, and very soon after they came upon him 
and his way layers, just as has been described. 

When Smith was fairly clear of the swamp into 
which he had fallen, and after they had shown 
signs of treating him with some consideration, 
he presented his pocket-compass to the chief, 
explaining, as he best could, its shifting mys- 
teries. The appearance of the long, slender 
needle, dancing so delicately to and fro beneath 
the glass, excited the savage's deepest astonish- 
ment and wonder. Smith took some pains to 
interest him with this toy as long as he could, 
and then made him a present of it, telling him 
what wonderful things it would do for him while 
coursing in the trackless forests, or paddling 
his canoe between the banks of the running riv- 
ers. But, as soon as the wonder of the chieftain 
was exhausted, he suffered his warriors to lay 
hold on their prisoner and bind him to a tree. 
Smith knew what was coming, and he remem- 
bered that, in his j^arleying fight, he had himself 
slain three of their own number. Only death 
stared him at that moment in the face. 

The savages each put an arrow on liis bow- 
string, and then all stood back in a circle as if to 



CAPTIVITY, 129 

slioot lilm, talving deliberate aim at various parts 
of liis body. But Smith betrayed nothing like 
fear. If his time to die had really come, then ho 
had nothing more to say. Resistance vrarj not 
to be thought of; and, as for begging for liIs 
life, it was the last thing in the world that ho 
would do. But that was just what they wislied 
to make him do. They had no intention of shoot- 
ing him; their object being simply to see how 
long ]iis courage would hold out. And, having 
once ascertained all they sought to know on 
that point, at the nod of their chief they dropped 
their weapons at their side, and, speedily loosen- 
ing his bands, conducted him to the fire which 
they had kindled for liis comfort. At Vae fire he 
saw the dead body of one of the two men whom 
he left in the canoe, pierced with countless ar- 
rows. They took the best of care of him after 
this, driving off the chills, and supplying him 
with as much food as he desired to eat. Thev 
knew he was a person of mark among the white 
settlers, and that was the reason why ho was 
spared from the flite that had befallen his moro 
unfortunate followers. Yet he did not know, 
after all, what his fi-o was to be ; perhaps an 



130 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

immediate and sudden death would be far better 
than the doom for which he was reserved. 

Opechancanough^ his captor^ was the king of 
Pamunkee ; and at that period acted rather in a 
subordinate capacity to the great chieftain Pow- 
hatan. He was a person of noble and command- 
ing staturO; as really became a king^ and inspired 
the Iiighest respect among his followers. Possi- 
bly he was keeping the captive to grace some 
public triumph in his own honor. It might not 
have been an absurd idea, even among those 
tribes of roving and' untutored savages. Smith 
noticed that, although the best food they could 
supply Avas set before him, they nevertheless re- 
fused from first to last to eat along with him. 
This excited the suspicion that these Indian tribes 
were cannibals, and that they were only fatten- 
ing him in order, at some future day, to fall to 
and eat him with a greater relish. And, in con- 
sequence of the feelings such a suspicion excited 
in his heart, he was more and more wretched 
every succeeding day of his captivity. 

Without longer delay, the savages took up 
their march with him through their several vil- 
lages, As they walked onward through the 



CArTTYITV. ■ ir,1 

deptlis of the gloomy forest^ a sturdy Indian 
holding on by each Avrist, and the chief folio wing- 
not far behmd, it was a scene well calculated to 
arouse even the dullest imagination. Whenever 
they came in sight of one of their villages, they 
set up such hideous cries and yells as brought 
out all the women and children to meet them in 
a ])ody. Traversing the region after this most 
unheard-of style, they at Ic^'-iglh reached the vil- 
lage called Orapakes. Here Smith was secured 
in a wigwam, and every avenue to escape care- 
fully guarded against. All the while they per- 
sisted in giving him just as much as he could eat, 
and even a great deal more ; and all the while, 
too, his troublesome misgivings about being 
served up himself for food some day, increased 
in his mind continually. 

Orapakes was a village where Powhatan used 
to dwell at some particular portions of the year. 
It was, therefore, expected to find the great 
chieftain there at that time ; but it happened that 
he was absent, and a longer delay followed there 
than was at first anticipated. And, during that 
delay, the Indians proposed to send spies to the 
settlement at JamestoAvn, to learn their present 



132 (.'APT. JOHN SMTTK. 

strength and condition. Smith heard of their 
plans, and determined to convert these mere 
spies into valuable messengers. No objection 
was made to his doing so, for little, indeed, did 
the savages understand the secrets that a scrap 
of paper might be made to convey. Accord- 
ingly, he tore a blank leaf from an old book that, 
by good fortune, ho had about him, and sat down 
and communicated to the people at the fort the 
tidings of his disaster. He likewise bade them 
impress the bearers of his letter as deeply as 
possible with the idea of their own strength, 
for they had been ahowed to go to Jamestown 
rather as spies than messengers ; and it waa im- 
portant that the report which they should bring 
back to their chief be as strongly in favor of the 
power of the settlement as it could be made. 

The messengers departed as soon as the letter 
had been prepared, and in three days returned 
again. As Smith expected, they brought back 
to the chief such an account of the vast strength 
and enormous guns of the fort as dissuaded him 
from the thought of assanlting its inmates, and 
for a time secured their perfect safety. It v/ould 
be laughable to recount the stories that were 



CAPTIVITY. 133 

told of the settlement and its various resources ; 
of the huge cannon^ which the colonists took 
particular pains to discharge in their hearing 
and presence ; of the thick and stout walls^ that 
could neither be scaled nor battered down ; and 
of the many warlike implements and preparations 
on which they relied for their defence against 
their enemies. 

As it happened, one of the Indians whom 
Smith had wounded with his pistol-shots^ noAV 
began to show signs of having come to the 
end of his savage days. The Indians certainly 
thought that, if the prisoner could, by Ms won- 
derful power, bring a man to such an extremity, 
he could, by the same power, restore him to 
vigor again. So they carried the wounded man 
to him, and bade him make him as sound as be- 
fore. But he was already too flir gone for that. 
Smith saw his condition, and told them he could 
do nothing for him ; and, after a brief interval, 
the Indian died. Then the rage of the victim's 
father rose Vvithin his breast, and he sought, 
steadily day and night to avenge the death of 
his son. The others were obliged to watch very 
closely to prevent the angry parent from exe- 
12 



134 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

cuting his design upon their prisoner. He even 
sought Smith in his prison-house, so determined 
was he to wreak upon' him the strength of his 
savage vengeance. And, finahy, to keep their 
prisoner secure from his enemy's passion, they 
were forced to quit the vihage, and resume their 
line of march. 

It would be both tedious and unimportant to 
recount the names of the many Indian villages and 
tribes through which they now passed. Without 
doubt Opechancanough felt much pride in thus 
conducting from tribe to tribe the great chief of 
the Avhite settlers as his prisoner; and he extended 
the route in consequence over as much territory 
as he thought would minister to that very natural 
feeling. They went among at least as many as 
ten or a dozen different people, every one of 
which regarded the appearance of the prisoner 
v/itli much amazement, and did honor to his cap- 
tor as a warrior above all other warriors for his 
skill and bravery. In their journey, besides the 
smaller streams and creeks which they cams to, 
they passed along both the Rappahannock and 
Potomac Rivern, and finally brought back their 
prisoner to Panumkee again, where Opecluuica- 



CAPTIVITY. 135 

nougli himself dwelt. Here tliey went through a 
singular ceremony which was called an incanta- 
tion ; a performance by means of which they 
could conjure up secret spirits within him, and 
thus find out w^hat his real intentions toward 
them were. They bedaubed themselves with 
paint, attired themselves in the hideous skins of 
Avild beasts, and, to the noise of rattling gourds, 
and yells and whoops, danced and capered about 
him all day long. This scene was continued for 
three days. Afterwards, they gave him food to 
eat in abundance, though carefully abstaining 
from eating with him themselves. And pretty 
soon he was taken to the lodge of a brother of 
Powdiatan, wdio bore the not very pleasant name 
of Opitchapam. There they continued to stuff 
him with all the food he could be made to swal- 
low, while his own fears of being eaten himself 
in turn returned with increasing force and 
perplexity. 

During this time they tried their utmost to 
bribe him to betray his companions at James- 
town. They offered him the richest gifts, if ho 
would only tell them how they could get into 
the fort M^ithout hurt from the guns. But Smith 



136 CAFT, JOKN HillTH. 

resolved to die before lie wo aid turn traitor. Ho 
■\\''Ould never tell them n syllable of what they 
wanted so much to knov/. How different — one 
cannot help reflecting while he reads — from the 
conduct of his selfish and heartless comrades 
toward Jtim ! 

They got possession of his gunpowder^ that he 
kept about him in a little bag ; and, asking him 
to show them how to put it to some sort of ser- 
vice, he explained by telling them it must be 
sown, like onion-seed, in the ground, — which 
they straightway proceeded to do, looking pa- 
tiently and hopefully for their crop some time in 
the coming spring. They asked him to discharge 
one of his pistols for them, that they might learn 
how to use it themselves ; and, taking it into his 
hand, he dexterously broke the cock, telling them 
that it was an accident, and that the pistol was^, 
thereafter, good for nothing. They refused to 
lot him try to explain the use of the other, lest 
lie should break that, too, and then laugh them 
to scorn for their ignorance. He was a puzzle 
and a wonder to them on all sides. They could 
not conquer his spirit by appealing to his fears : 
they were not vldi cnouQ-h \n o-jn-o. to l>ribo ]nin 



CAPTIVITY. 137 

into treachery ; tliej felt assured^ in tlieir untu- 
tored minds^ that he possessed a far superior 
wisdom to their own ; imd the respect which 
they consequently entertained for him was the 
very shield and buckler that in his extremity 
afforded him the surest protection. In a few 
days more they determined to carry him to the 
other kingly residence of Powhatan^ and deliver 
him up to their mighty chief. 
12^ 



CHAPTER YII. 

POCAHOXTAS. 

THERE is nothing more truly touching and 
dramatic in all history than this same 
story of Pocahontas. It has moved the 
heart of every one who ever heard it told. 
Every ncAv generation reads the tender tale over 
again^ narrated perhaps by a new writer, and in 
a new way ; yet the story itself is always the 
tvmie, and never fails to touch the feelings of the 
listener profoundly. 

Captain Smith was in continual dread of his 
life while Opechancanough kept him a prisoner, 
believing that he was only being fattened and 
reserved for the celebration of some of their 
future orgies. The thought kept him in a state 
of such suspense that he could scarcely shut his 
eyes to sleep at night. To deck the triumph of 
a savage j)rin'je was no part of his choice, if his 



POCAHONTAS. 139 

choice could eveu be said to lie that way. His 
present captivity was bad enough, but there 
might be things, he imagined, eveu v/orse than 
that. 

The journey was at length undertaken to the 
seat of Powhatan, which was called Werowo- 
comoco. On every side he was surrounded by 
terrible looking savages, and his path lay through 
the heart of a dense and gloomy forest. Every- 
thing contributed to add to his fears. The coun- 
tenances of the Indians were grim and inhuman. 
Their communications with one another were by 
means of dark looks, mysterious frowns, and a 
gibberish, that to our unhappy prisoner Vv^ere 
almost unintelligible. In one way and another 
he was kept in this state of alarm, until he finally 
reached, with his escort, the place where the 
royal chieftain, Powhatan, dwelt. 

But even then he was for a considerable time 
denied an interview. It was the Indian policy 
to impress him as deeply as possible with a sense 
of the greatness and majesty of their noble king. 
They accordingly did not hurry to bring about 
a meeting, but put it off on one pretext and 
another, all the wdiile taking pains to make such 



140 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

shows and ceremonies as would be most likely 
to give their intended victim an impressive idea 
of their power and number. Smith they knew 
to be the chief of his people. Whether the nar- 
row-minded ones at the settlement so considered 
him, vv^as nothing to the purpose ; it was enough 
that he had made himself the master-spirit of all 
their designs, and alone led the bold way forAvard 
to the established success of the colony. And 
they determined that a prisoner of such a fame 
should be presented at the savage court with all 
the state and ceremony with which they could 
manage to surround him. 

Already two hundred warriors were assembled 
about his person, watching every movement he 
made with unaffected wonder ; and savages came 
flocking in from other tribes in the vicinity, eager 
to lay their eyes upon a captive whose name 
had gone abroad throughout their midst. They 
gazed on him as if he had been a monster. They 
crowded around him so thickly, that he could 
see only hideously dressed and bedaubed sav- 
ages, let him look in whatever direction he 
might. Their presence cast a deeper gloom over 
his already depressed spirits, and perplexed him 



POCAHONTAS. 141 

still more and more respecting their intentions 
and his own probable fate. 

When^ at length, all the preparations were 
made, Smith was led from the retreat where till 
this time he had been kept, and brought before 
the august personage for whom all this pomp 
had been undertaken. Powhatan was seated on 
his throne, with his dusky retinue around him. 
The place fixed upon for the interview was in 
the very depths of the forest, with only the 
grand old trees encircling them, and the deep 
blue gky overhead. Hundreds of savages stood 
crowded near their chieftain, lending a pictu- 
resque beauty, fearful even as it was, to the 
strange and impressive scene. Immediately 
about the royal chief sat, or reclined, Indian 
niaidens, wonderful for their free and natural 
grace, throwing a ^yild cli'tirm over the place by 
their presence, and looking on as deeply-inter- 
ested spectators of the imposing interview. The 
several groups, that helped carry out the solem- 
nity of the occasion, were attired and orna- 
mented as only Indians know how to attire 
and ornament themselves, — • some with feathers, 
some with beads, clad with skins and curiously 



142 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

bedecked blankets, and all painted a bright and 
brilliant red. Civilized courts, imposing as their 
array is meant to be made, could scarcely offer a 
more Avildiy-beautiful exhibition. Great as must 
have continued to be our adventurer's fears, too, 
he could not well help forgetting them all for 
the time, and being absorbed in the grotesque 
pageant around him. The new sights that he 
saw appealed strongly to his imagination, and 
filled it with pictures he had never before 
dreamed of beholding. And about these fantas- 
tic human groups thickly stood the noble forest- 
trees, some of them monarchs and princes, like 
this Indian king, stretching out their wizard 
arms protectingly above their heads, or uttering 
in a sad and monotonous tone the wailing music 
of the faintly blowing wind. 

Powhatan himself was the observed of all ob- 
servers. Smith said of his appearance on that 
occasion, '^ He wore such a grave and majestical 
countenance, as drove me into admiration to see 
such state in a naked salvage" (savage). He had 
ujDon him chains of enormous pearls, and a robe 
of raccoon-skins enveloped his noble and com- 
manding figure, the bushy tails of the skins 



POCAHONTAS. 143 

luiDging in an ornamental row around the hem 
of his robe. His bearing was manly and noble. 
The very expression of his face was that of an 
emperor. Serene and majestic as any king in 
Christendom, he sat there in state before the 
eyes of the multitude, the object of their highest 
respect and wonder. With them his decree was 
law and commandment together. His glance 
quickened or reproved ; his frown expressed 
unuttered anger ; his benignant glance filled 
every savage heart with a courage that was 
equal to the wildest deeds of human daring or 
strength. Smith describes the impression made 
u-poTL him by the savage in such emphatic lan- 
guage as this : " Powhatan was sitting uppon a 
throne with such a majestie as I cannot expresse, 
nor yet have often scene, either in pagan or 
Christian." 

Thus much for the scene itself to which the 
reader has been introduced. The moment the 
distinguished captive was brought into the pres- 
ence of the great Indian chiefj a shout went up 
from the throats of the savages, that rent the 
very heart of the forest-silence. A j^outhful In- 
dian queen was ordered to furnish water for him 



144 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

to wash liis hands. Another female brought a 
tuft of feathers with which to dry his hands 
again. And then they placed before him a large 
abundance of their choicest food, of Avhich he 
was directed to partake. In the mean while, the 
Indian chiefs deliberated secretly among them- 
selves respecting the flite that ought to await 
him. They collected in a group about the seat 
of Powhatan, and there carried on their savage 
consultation. 

]\[uch as might have been given Smith to eat, 
and however ravenous his appetite may have 
happened to be just at that particular time, it is 
quite easy to imagine tliat his thoughts were 
rather taken up with tlie deliberation of the sav- 
ages than Avith any of the dainty dishes they may 
have set before him. An;l.;\]though he may Iiave 
eaten a little of their provision, yet it wa^^ not 
Avith a great deal of eagerness^ nor Avitli as mucli 
relish as might have cliaracterized a less anxious 
occasion. So he eat and listened, (md listened 
and eat, alternately. But he tried to put as good 
a face on it is as he could, and gazed around him 
with as much apparent indifference as if lie really 
cared nothing at all for what was going on. 



POCAHONTAS. 145 

At last the suspense was over. The dehbera- 
tion was at an end. Smith crould not exactly 
read in their stern and unbending countenances 
what his doom was to be ; yet he was tormented 
with the most cruel apprehensions. Their decis- 
ion was very soon made known^ after the con- 
sultation broke up. It had been determined that 
the unfortunate captive should die ! He was the 
leading spirit of the strange white settlers. He 
had slain three or four of the Indian multitude 
already Avith his murderous weapons. He ^vas 
exploring and spying about the country, search- 
ing for secrets among the savage tribes, and 
probably concocting some terrible mischief with 
which ere long to visit them. If he was but out 
of the way^ all further fear of harm from the 
colonists would be at an end. It was, therefore, 
best that he be brought at once to his doom, and 
the region thus be freed from the presence of an 
arch-enemy, and a power superior to their own. 

Accordingly, he received his sentence in the 
presence of the multitude, all listening and look- 
ing on with savage intensity. The decree was, 
that he be carried forth to die without further 

delay. 

IT 



146 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Within the circle described by the gathering 
of the dusky multitude, two huge stones were 
brought, and placed immediately before Pow- 
hatan. An eager and excited crowd then laid 
violent hold on liim, and forthwith dragged him 
to the spot. Across one of the stones they laid 
his head. A few stalwart savages, with huge 
clubs, then took their stations silently near their 
victim, ready to obey the imperial nod that 
would have dashed out his brains before the 
whole assembly. Smith lay perfectly calm upon 
the ground, having given over every hope of liis 
safety now, and feeling altogether resigned to 
his drep.dful fate. It was certainly a moment of 
the most intense anguish even for his brave soul. 
He was only awaiting the fall of the fatal club 
on his head, yet w^as ignorant when the silent 
order might be given, and tlio deadening blow 
be struck. In that single moment he must have 
lived a hundred common lives, by the crowded 
intensity of his feelings. 

PoAvhatan Avas just ready to make the fatal 
sign of death, when out from the silent group of 
females ran the figure of a little girl, but ten or 
twelve years old, and darted almost as rapidly 



POCAHONTAS. 147 

as thought in the direction of the condemned 
and prostrate prisoner. Quicker than the whole 
occurrence can be told, she sprang forward be- 
tween those uplifted clubs of the executioners 
and the head of their intended victim, and threw 
herself upon his devoted neck, encircling it affec- 
tionately with her arms. There was a sudden 
outcry of wonder from the savage multitude 
at so novel and unexpected an event, and all 
eagerly strained their gaze to learn who the 
damsel was that had taken so strange an interest 
in the prisoner. They looked, and saw that it 
was Pocahontas, the beloved daughter of their 
mighty king ! Then they turned their eyes upon 
his majestic countenance, unsettled in their opin- 
ion as to how he would brook such an unheard-of 
interference with his mandates. Though he was 
deeply moved by what he saAV, his face betrayed 
nothing of the kind. He sat witli as calm and 
rigid an exterior as ever. 

It appeared that Pocahontas had been entreat- 
ing her fither to extend compassion to the vic- 
tim, before this notable occurrence. She had 
plead with him, with tears running from her 
eyes, that he would spare the unfortunate cap- 



148 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

tive from a violent death. Much as the Indian 
king- doted on his sweet child^ his savage heart 
had not yet learned to relent from its once- 
formed purposes, The prisoner had been con- 
demned to die ; he had already been ordered 
forth for execution ; Powhatan was the great 
and mighty emperor, whose very name was a 
lofty power, and whose slightest mandates must 
be obeyed ; his chiefs and his Avarriors were all 
looking on with stern faces to see the pro- 
nounced doom finally executed ; and how could 
the fearful sentence at such a time as that be 
revoked ? How could the king stand up before 
his jealous warriors, in the face of a pardon 
under such pressing circumstances as these ? 
Though he loved his child, therefore, as the very 
apple of his eye, he could not encounter with 
safety the opposition of his many chiefs, nor the 
loud demands of the pressing multitudes for im 
mediate and summary punishment. And so the 
execution went on. And just at tlie moment of 
the crisis, tlie same compassionate daughter of 
the king rushed forth, as we have described, and 
threw her arms ])rotectingly about the neck of 



POCAHONTAS. 149 

the victim, inter230sing her own valuable life 
between his and any further harm. 

As soon as the profound astonishment which 
it j)roduced had in some degree subsided, the 
brows of the chieftains began to relax from their 
savage rigidity, and another feeling took silent 
and steady hold upon tlieir hearts. It was a 
thing not to be lightly passed over, that the one 
who had thus openly befriended the prisoner 
w^as the daughter of the king. Her arms had 
been around his neck. Her sweet and tender 
compassion was not to be thought lightly of. 
Her earnest plea, before the eyes of the multi- 
tude, for mercy, Avas not to be slighted. Even 
her childish partiality deserved the sober and 
serious regard of the bravest and sternest war- 
riors. 

Pocahontas was the idol of her royal father. 
A boon that she had dared in this manner to 
crave, it was next to impossible to refuse. The 
perfect artlessness with which she begged it, the 
open and flowing bravery with which the act 
was accompanied, the childlike faith Avhich she 
seemed to have in her own ability to protect the 
prisoner, all wrought with so much effect on the 
13- 



150 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

stony natures of both her parent and the chief- 
tains, that the former soon yielded to the power 
of the new influence, and her prayer for mercy 
was once more heard. The decision was recon- 
sidered, — the sentence was revoked. Smith was 
raised from his posture on the ground, and pre- 
sented as a slave to the innocent maiden whose 
interposition had saved his life. From that day 
forward he was to belong to her ; to go where 
she sent him ; to obey her wishes in everything ; 
to minister to her wildest fancies ; and to per- 
form such acts of servile labor as would mark 
him at once both as the dependant and the favor- 
ite. He was undoubtedly grateful for the priv- 
ilege of being allowed his life on even such 
conditions. 

Once thrown into the midst of the Indian en- 
campment, and especially into the society of so 
powerful a chieftain as Powhatan, Smith would 
be extremely apt to make his influence felt all 
about him. His very presence among them 
being such a wonder, and his valorous deeds 
having already excited so large a share of their 
admiration, it would be natural to expect him 
silently and surely to make his own strong mark 



POCAHONTAS. 151 

upon their modes of thought and action. And 
he did so very speedily. 

Powhatan adopted the adventurer into his 
own family, calling him his son, and bestowing 
on him such favors as he usually vouchsafed only 
to his own kindred. In truth, the kingly parent 
began to think that a superior Power must have 
interfered to save his victim from death, and his 
kind treatment accordingly began to increase 
with his superstition. And, as the acquaintance 
between them deepened and widened, Powhatan 
gradually began to talk of liberty to his captive, 
and of sending him away at some not distant 
time to the settlement again. The Indian king- 
was crafty to the last degree. What he chiefly 
desired was to get possession of the fort and its 
armament. In order to do this, he was ready to 
play any hypocritical part that might seem best 
calculated to advance his designs. He was 
willing for the time even to allow our hero his 
freedom, hoping that, by the means, he was easily 
to be allowed not only his re-capture, but the 
destruction likewise of the whole colony. So 
he plied him industriously with questions about 
the condition of the white settlers, and sought in 



152 CAM. JOHN SMITH, 

every way to make himself familiar with their 
weak and strong points of defence. Fortunately^ 
Smith was acute enough to penetrate to the heart 
of his planS; and met his inquiries with answers 
fully their equal both in adroitness and deceit. 

Among the other articles of which he had 
heard y the Indian emperor wanted badly to own 
the big guns with which the fort was mounted. 
These our artful hero signified his perfect wil- 
lingness to give him, and said that the warriors 
might return with him and carry them away. 
Powhatan wanted likewise a grindstone^ having 
learned from the reports of others its value in 
sharpening such instruments as the savages used 
about their peculiar avocations. And, by way 
of barter for these much-coveted things, ho 
freely promised the whites a tract of land that 
he did not happen himself to possess, and from 
which he evidently meant to expel them as 
soon as they should have established themselves 
thereon. Powhatan recounted to his captive 
fabulous tales of the wealth and greatness of the 
tribes that dwelt beyond him toward the west ; 
and, in return. Smith more than matched his wild 
stories with other narratives of the grand cities 



POCAHONTAS. 153 

lie had himself visited in Europe, of tHe many 
and strange people he had seen in the other 
three quarters of the globe, and of the ships, 
and cannon, and arts, and glories of the civiliza- 
tion out of Avhich he had wandered into this 
dreary forest. He took pains, also, to impress 
the chieftain's mind with the vastness of the 
ocean, and spoke of Captain Newport and his 
vessel, and of his being expected from beyond 
the seas very soon, with more supplies for the 
colony. Newport he called the prince of the 
seas. 

Finally, Smith was promised his liberty in a 
few more days. During that interval it was 
Powhatan's wish that all his own people should 
have an opportunity of beholding so wonderful 
a being. The chieftain's admiration for his pris- 
oner increased daily. He grew to such a limit 
in Powhatan's regard, that the latter at length 
seemed loth to part with him at all, and began to 
make serious proposals for him to come with his 
colonists and settle nearer him. And in order 
to offer more tempting inducements for such a 
change of location, he promised that the settlers 
should be supplied with venison and grain in 



154 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

abundance. Still eager to either entrap or 
coerce the whites into his plans, the Avily Indian 
at length consented to send back his prisoner to 
the fort, under an escort of a dozen of his sav- 
age followers. So Smith took his departure, and 
the ignorant and deluded sons of the forest went 
away with him, expecting, without fail, to return 
with a load of heavy grindstones and cannon on 
their backs. 

Though the distance he had to go was only 
twelve miles, yet they were two days on their 
journey ; during which time they tortured his 
mind continually with thoughts of being slain 
and eaten ; especially when they stopped the 
first night at an old and deserted hut, where 
Smith thought they must have taken him for no 
other purpose. But all his fears happily proved 
groundless in the end ; for they carried him in 
safety to his friends again, who were indeed 
overjoyed to see him, and looked upon him as 
upon one actually raised from the dead. 

Still again, as it happened, he reached his 
friends just in season to prevent another catas- 
trophe. Rejoiced as they all were to see him back, 
there were yet enough of them who continued 



POCAHONTAS. 155 

to dread his influence and authority, and who 
would much sooner hear of his death than be 
assured that he had come back among them. A 
Captain Archer had been put in his place in the 
Council, during his absence, who was the ring- 
leader in a plan to take the boat and desert the 
settlement Avith a few selfish and cowardly fol- 
lowers. Smith made his old and sure appeal to 
the loaded guns of the fort ; and, just at the 
critical moment when they thought to carry 
their scheme into effect, his energetic firmness 
compelled them to abandon their undertaking, 
and make the best of their way to the shore. 
This was an act that, by repetition, m^ght almost 
be said to have become a habit with Captain 
Smith ; but it Avas certainly instrumental in pre- 
venting a complete break-up of the colony in its 
infant existence, and the consequent suffering 
and death of its members Avho might have been 
left behind. 

The malcontents, not satisfied with being 
spared from the doom with which they were 
threatened, now sought to convict Smith of mur- 
dering the imprudent men who were slain, as has 
been narrated, by the Indians. They of course 



15G CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

could have no proof of a deed so atrocious on 
his part, yet they had well-nigh succeeded in 
their design, when he made a sudden personal 
onslaught upon them, and overturned judge, 
jury, accusers, and all, in one common confusion. 
At this opportune moment Captain Newport ar- 
rived with his vessel from England, and his 
presence of itself for a time quelled any further 
symptoms of tumult or insubordination. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 

N active and resolute spirit, like that of 
. John Smith, would not fail to make its 
influence deeply felt wherever shifting 
circumstances might carry him. Xo sooner, 
therefore, had he got comfortably clear of his 
captivity, and become domesticated again at the 
settlement, than he took the control of affairs 
into his own hands as readily as if all things had 
been previously prepared for his coming. The 
colonists were impressed anew with his charac- 
tei". from seeing his energy in quelling this last 
act of rebellion. They likewise looked upon his 
own safe deliverance from such a long detention 
among the Indians, as something that pointed 
directly to the intervention of a kind Provi- 
dence. And, lastly, the thought that he was a 
friend and confidant of the great warrior Pow- 
14 



158 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

liatan, so lifted him in their respect, if not even 
lip to their reverence, as to compel immediate 
acquiescence in Avliatever he chose eitlier to 
desire or command. 

The arrival of Captain Newport, with his men, 
bringing with them as they did an assortment of 
such commodities as would naturally invite a 
brisk exchange witli the Indian tribes for their 
corn and other necessaries, infused temporarily 
new life into the affairs of the settlement, and 
gave a look even of commerce to the I)usy and 
bustling transactions of the colonists. Smith's 
old rules of trade with the Indians, however, were 
very soon set at naught. The caution he had so 
long exercised was soon overlooked as of little 
or no worth. Newport, in truth, was jealous of 
his influence with the savages, and foolishly 
fancied that he himself could make much better 
terms with them, and fix himself even more 
deeply in their affections, by letting tliem have 
his articles of traffic at lower rates, and in moi-e 
liberal supplies. So that in a very little while, 
everything was in confusion so far as the old 
laws of trade were concerned, and Smith saw, 
with silent chagrin, that Newport's short-sight- 



JAMESTOWN AND PO\yHATAN. 159 

edness and vanity were fast bringing the colony 
into contempt and disrepute. 

In order to check the mischief before it was 
allowed to go any further^ he proposed ta Cap- 
tain Newport that they should go together on an 
excursion np to Powhatan's own lodge, and there 
carry on a little trade and negotiation in his pres- 
ence. At once the latter fell in with the j^roposal. 
Besides curing him of liis overweening vanity^ 
Smith also thought it a good oj)portunity to 
impress Powhatan with the greatness of the Eng- 
lish people. themselves. He had, during his cap- 
tivity, told the Indians that Newport was soon 
expected from over the seas ; and noAv, to give 
them a sight of him already arrived, and to 
describe to them the details of his voyage, and 
the greatness of the ship in which he came, 
would be doing a work upon the untutored 
minds of these forest-citizens, that would be 
likely never to be forgotten. 

Filling the pinnace, therefore, with a great 
variety of articles that would be most certain to 
find a ready sale among the Indians, and, select- 
ing about thirty men to accompany them on the 
expedition, the two leaders set forth for the 



160 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

cliieftam's residence at Werowocomoco. But, 
even before they arrived there, Newport's cour- 
age began to show signs of giving out. He 
would have been glad to go back again, and 
abandon the project entirely. But Smith was 
resohii(\ and had no idea of acting out any such 
foil}' as that. Still, he was hard pressed to find 
AYords enough of encouragement to hold the 
braggart sea-captain steadily on his way. He 
succeeded, however, in his endeavor at last, and 
they continued on their journe3\ 

When they came to land, NcAvport could not 
be prevailed on by any amount of persuasion to 
go on shore with the others, expressing his fears 
from the snares and ambushes that might have 
been jDrepared for them. The simple truth was, 
Newport was a coward. Captain Smith, how- 
ever, answered the childish fears of his compan- 
ion with nothing but silent contempt. Taking 
about twenty of the crew, he started at their 
head for Powhatan's lodge. On the w^ay he was 
met by a band of the Indians, who turned about 
and accompanied the party onward to the lodge 
of the great chieftain. The following is Smith's 
own description of Powhatan's appearance, when 



JAMESTOWN AND POVvlTATAN. 161 

lie was admitted into the presence of the Indian 
chief : 

^^ Sitting upon his bed of mats, his pillow of 
leather imbrodered (after their rude manner^ 
with pearle and wdiite beads), his attyre a fine' 
robe of skinnes, as large as an Irish mantell ; at 
his head and feet a handsome young Avoman ; on 
each side his house sat twentie of his concu- 
bines, their heads and shoulders painted red, 
with a great chaine of wdiite beades about each 
of their neckes. Before those sat his chiefest 
men, in like order in his arbour-like house, and 
more than forty platters of fine bread stood as 
a guard in two fyles on each side the doore. 
Foure or five hundred people made a guard be- 
hind them for our passage, and proclamation was 
made, none upon paine of death to presume to 
do us any wrong or discourtesie." 

Powhatan majestically nodded a silent wel- 
come to the party, and at once made room for 
Captain Smith by his side. Smith made him a 
present of a dog, a hat, and some red cloth, 
which Powhatan received with manifest pleas- 
ure, ordering wateY to be immediately brought 
for his friend's hands. He then proceeded to 



1G2 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

inquire after Newport, whom Smith h;ul pi-o- 
viously sent word he was going to bring with 
him. New^port; it w^as promised, should be there 
on the following day. Powhatan likewise made 
several inquiries concerning the big guns that 
Smith had promised him ; which the latter an- 
swered with a good-humored laugh, asking the 
chieftain where the warriors were who were able 
to carry them on their shoulders from the fort to 
his lodge. It was a highly pleasant interview, 
altogether, and helped cement still closer the 
friendships that had been already begun between 
them. When the party started to go back to the 
pinnace again, they found that tlie tide was so 
low they could not hope to reach her that night, 
and so were compelled to return to Povvdiatan's 
lodge. He feasted them in the most bountiful 
style, setting before them meat enough for a 
much greater number of men than they Avere 
able to muster. It was the Indian custom, too, 
not to take back any of the food offered ; but 
the recipient must either eat it, or carry it with 
him, or give it away. After their most abundant 
meal, they were shown to their place of rest by 
the light of pine torches. 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAX. 103 

Early the next morning tliej all set out for the 
river, Povrhatan himself and his retinue accom- 
panying. The latter displayed to his white 
friends his little fleet of canoes that lay floating 
in the creeks and coves, giving them some idea 
of the wealth the surrounding tribes poured into 
his treasury, and expatiating largely on the 
povv^er that he held over all the regions round 
about him. While occupied by the river's bank 
in this manner, Captain Newport was seen aj)- 
])roaching them in his boat. Powhatan imme- 
diately withdre^v, in order to make the neces- 
sary preparations to receive so distinguished a 
stranger with all becoming pomp and ceremony. 

The style of Newport's reception was nowise 
different from that of Smith's before him. There 
Avere the same accompaniments of boisterous 
shouts on the part of the savages, and the same 
speeches proffering good-fellowship and kind- 
ness to the new comer. A feast was set, as 
before, and the strangers were urged to fall to 
and eat to their fill. Newport made a present of 
a white boy to the chieftain, in token of the 
friendship that he was anxious always to keep 
alive between them, and of the confidence with 



164 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

wliicli he pretended to be inspired during the 
interview. Powhatan, in turn, presented the 
captain with an Indian lad, wliose name was 
Namoutack. At nightfall the whole party of 
whites returned to their vessel, and on the mor- 
row their interview with the Indian chief was 
resumed again. 

Powhatan was uneasy to see that the settlers 
invariably brought their arms with them on their 
visits, and reproached Smith and Newport with 
want of confidence in him and his people. The 
two leaders tried by every method to explain 
away the causes of his fear, but with poor suc- 
cess. Nothing could finally divert his attention 
from them except the novel inducements to trade 
which they immediately bethought themselves to 
hold out to him. For several days this traffic 
between the two parties was briskly kept up. 
The intensity of the occupation was relieved at 
times by the singing, and dancing, and powwows 
of the red men, who, by these methods, relieved 
the tediousness of the time wonderfully. 

But it turned out, before they had made much 
further progTess, that Powhatan was inclined to 
nothing so much as downright shrewdness ; most 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 165 

people would prefer to call it deceit. He pre- 
tended that he was above trade, leaving that to 
meaner persons than himself. So he said to Cap- 
tain Newport, ^' You are a great chief, as well as 
myself Do not let iis chaiFer about prices and 
values. Lay down all your articles, and I will 
take what I like. In return for them I will place 
before you what I think to be their value." 

As it happened, Smith was the only man pres- 
ent who could act as an interpreter between the 
two parties. He therefore cautioned Newport 
that the object of Powhatan was merely to cheat 
him : but the conceit of the vain man made him 
blind. He wanted to let Smith understand that 
his warnings and cautions vrere of no value, not 
worth heeding at all. So he affected to be unusu- 
ally generous with the Indian emperor, and pro- 
ceeded to parade before liim all the various arti- 
cles that he had brought along. The latter helped 
himself without further ceremony, and afterwards 
laid down the corn which he pretended to con- 
sider their^fuU value. Even Newport himself 
was so much surprised at the wily savage's extor- 
tion, that he declared he could have brought over 
the grain on more profitable terms from England 



166 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

itself. So low an estimate did Powhatan place 
upon the trader's articles, and so high a value 
upon the corn that was to bo measured out of 
his own granary, that, instead of twenty hogs- 
heads of maize, which was the quantity expected 
to be had, Newport found himself compelled to 
be satisfied with only four husliels ! The latter 
was irritated beyond measure. Yet he had no 
remedy. He had purposely trusted to the honor 
of the savage, and he found to his chagrin that 
he was not possessed even of common lionesty. 
Smith taunted him with his weakness, and high 
words ensued between them, of course. 

But Smith did not mean to go away with noth- 
ing to tell of but the bad end of so poor a bar- 
gain. He resolved to make as speedy amends as 
possible for the ground tliat had been so fool- 
islily h)st. Gathering together such few trifles 
from liis store as he knew would at once catch 
tlie childish eye of the Indian chief, he made 
liaste to display them in the most tempting man- 
ner that he could devise. Powhatan was eager 
to possess himself of them. They were nothing, 
after all, but a few blue beads ; but Smith Avas, 
nevertheless, biickward about parlins: with them. 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 167 

lie described to the chieftain how valuable they 
were, telling him that they Avere never worn ex- 
cept by the greatest princes and kings on the 
face of the earth. The Indian grew more eager 
to buy, the less willing Smith was to selL So 
intent did he at length become on possessing 
the glittering baubles, that he was willing, and 
even glad, to get them at ahuost any cost, 
however extravagant. And, to make good the 
silly losses of NevN^port's traffic, Smith finally 
consented to let him liave a pound of them, — 
only a single pound, — for about three hundred 
good bushels of his corn ! The bargain was 
struck, hard as it was, and the spectres of starva- 
tion and suffering immediately vanished from 
before the eyes of the settlers. The Indian had 
met his match, and must himself have felt that 
Smith was a person of far superior powers to his 
more vain and less valiant companion. 

But Powhatan, though he knew that Smith 
was quite as artful and wary as himself, openly 
betrayed no feeling like anger, or even chagrin. 
That was not the policy of his race. If he was 
overreached, he would, in his own turn, over- 
reach again. In some Avay the account should 



168 €AFT. JORN SMITH. 

"be kept square between them^ let the pains cost 
what the J might. Accordingly, he was very 
careful to conceal his dissatisfaction, and openly 
affected all the time to be as much pleased with 
the bargain as Smith was himself. 

Yet the suspicious savage dreaded the looks 
of the fire-arms which the white men always car- 
ried with them. He desired nothing so much as 
to get the voyagers only once on shore, and 
within his camp, with not one of their deadly 
weapons in their hands. To this end he both 
rallied and besought our hero and his companion 
continually, but, as it appeared, to little purpose. 
Smith knew that their arms were the only shield 
between his party and destruction. Whatever 
confidence he might profess to place in the 
friendly words of Powhatan, he nevertheless 
relied a vast deal more on the trusty firelocks 
that could, in a momeni:, set the savages to run- 
ning. Powhatan would tell him how the sight 
of the guns and pistols frightened his women ; 
and begged to have them left behind in the boat 
the next time he came on shore. Newport was 
for obeying the monarch's lequest. Not so 
Smith, however. He insisted on carrying the 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 169 

-weapons ■with liim as before, and did so in spite 
of Newport's ridiculous protest. When he came 
into Powhatan's presence again, the latter began, 
of course, to taunt him with his lack of confi- 
dence in himself. Smith was ready with his 
answer : " That is just the way they talked to 
me," said he, " when they betrayed me before, 
and killed my white brother." Powdiatan Avas 
silenced, though he was not yet altogether at his 
ease. 

After the party got through "with their trading 
at Werowocomoco, they started on to pay a brief 
visit to Opechancanough, at his lodge. Hardly 
had they arrived th.ere, however, when Powhatan 
grew uneasy in his tlioughts, and immediately 
dispatched his daughter Pocahontas to call them 
back. Back, therefore, they went again to the 
old chieftain, and humored him by opening once 
more their collection of trinkets to his eyes. He 
made them an additional present of another In- 
dian boy, whom they promised to send over to 
England with -Captain Newport on his return, 
and Avho should bring back tidings to the great 
chief of the mighty people that lived beyond the 
seas. The lad did visit England ; and it Avas 
15 * 



170 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

said of liinij that^ standing in the streets of Lon- 
don^ lie attempted to cut a notch on a stick for 
every person he sav/ ; but he soon gave up his 
notching system of numeration in despair, and 
related afterwards to Powhatan that the people 
Yv^ere more in number than the leaves on the 
trees. 

The colonists now took a foolish freak into 
their heads that there was a certain locality near 
them containing gold. This mineral had dazzled 
their untutored imaginations from the beginning. 
Every one was sure that he was finally to go 
back to England with a lieap of gold in his pos- 
session. The thought turned their heads, and 
undermined their energy. Nothing short of their 
many reverses, and trials, and privations, would 
seem to have been able to keep this destroying- 
delusion in check. But now it broke out anew. 
They fell to work with all zeal on a tough rock, 
out of which they exhumed a glittering sub- 
stance that looked in the sunlight like the pre- 
cious mineral they craved. Smith tried to ridi- 
cule their efforts, while he worked, for the sake 
of peace, as A'igorously as the rest. They grew 
perfectly insMiic with tlieir foolish projects. 



JAMKSTOVVxX AND POWHATAN. 171 

Smith says that there was "no talke, no hope, 
no worke, but dig gold, Avash gold, refine gold, 
loade gold ; '"' and that " one mad fellow desired 
to be buried in the sands, lest they should, by 
their art, make gold of his bones ! " 

But this infatuation, like all others of its class, 
Iiad its day, and speedily came to its end. 
Another trial was now close upon the settlers, 
for which they had made no provision, and 
of which they had never probably taken any 
thought. That was hj fire ; the fearful, though 
beautiful element, that goes ragingly through the 
heart and life of our civilized comforts, and licks 
up all perishable things wdth a single lap of its 
hungry tongue. 

The colonists were very careless about the 
use of the fires they were in the habit of kind- 
ling in the woods around them, never stopping 
to consider what unhappy consequences might 
follow. They |)layed with them as boys would, 
Avho go out into the forests on Saturday after- 
noons, and roast filched apples and potatoes in 
the hot embers. The houses of the little ham- 
let of Jamestown were exceedingly frail and 
combustible, some of them being composed of 



172 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

dried brush and branches, held together in their 
turn by heavy logs and boards. Their roofs 
were light, and composed of reeds and bushes. 
As soon, then, as the flames once caught hold of 
an edge of tlio settlement, they surged along in 
their hot course without curb or check. The 
brush caught like tinder. The roofs burned up 
with a single quick flash. Down fell the frames 
in smouldering ruin, overarched with a canopy 
of dense and destructive fire. Every dwelling 
took fire and was consumed with amazing rapid- 
ity. The granary went, too, in which vrcrc 
stored the several hundred bushels of grain that 
Smith had succeeded in purchasing from Pow- 
hatan. This latter loss was the hardest to bear 
of all. It threw them upon the very verge of 
want again. The winter was excessively cold, 
and few hungered and famishing people could 
hope to withstand its severity. The minister, 
Mr. Hunt, had all his books burned, yet. Smith 
declared, he " never was heard to repine at his 
loss.'' The unexpected event was a heavy blow 
to the settlers, and the instrument of sucli a 
degree of want and suffering as finally carried 
nearly half of their number out of the world. 



I 




€^^^ 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 173 

Finally Captain Newport took his departure 
for Europe, Iiaving first received a j)resent of 
twenty wild turkeys from Powhatan, and sent 
liim back the same number of English swords. 
Smith protested against so hazardous a gift ; but 
with no effect. He felt that it was really nothing 
less than suicidal for the unprotected colony. 
Radcliffe and ^lartin were now at the head of 
the confused state cf affairs, and managed mat- 
ters pretty much after their own fashion. They 
took what public stores were yet left from the 
ship's cargo, and cruelly speculated on them to 
their own selfish profit. The rest of the settlers 
made no opposition to their conduct, and so 
Smith judiciously kept his peace. But, with the 
return of spring, things took on some sort of 
change. The planting season began, and Smith 
fell to work in hearty earnest. This example 
v.'as one tiiat few of his comrades could long 
resist ; and, from planting corn, he turned his 
attention to building houses, and soon succeeded 
in quietly engaging their efforts in the erection 
of such edifices as the settlement more imme- 
diately stood in need of First, they built a new 
church ; then a granary ; and next a fort. At 



174 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

l!iis ()j)portunc moment, too, anotlicr vessel ar^ 
] :ve(l, named the Plienix. It had set out in com. 
p;>iiy Avith Captain Newport's vessel, in the first 
place ; but a storm having arisen and separated 
them, it was given np at length for lost. It 
seems, however, that it had been driven over to 
the West India Islands, where it found a safe 
slielter. 

By this arrival the reduced colony was put in 
possession of provisions enough to last them for 
six months, and a numerical addition to its force 
of one hundred and twenty persons. Smitli 
immediately formed the resolution to make ex- 
plorations of an extensive character into the sur- 
rounding country. The captain of the Phenix 
likewise seconded his plan. And the men, to the 
number of seventy, were properly drilled and 
got in readiness for the service, but only to bo 
disappointed at last through the fears and sus- 
picions of those whose nominal rule was allowed 
at the settlement. The vessel v/as, ere long, got 
ready to return again to England ; but there was 
mucli trouble in settling wpon what should be the 
character of its cargo. Smith proposed to return 
a freight of cedar wood, whicli would, undoubt- 



JAMESTOWX AND POWHATAN. 175 

edly, Imvo proved a profitable shipment. But 
tlio others were for trying a venture of their ohl 
gold-dirt, and it Avas quite all Smith could do to 
dissuade them from this ridiculous purpose. 

Of a sudden the Indians threw off their long- 
worn mask of friendship. The peace they had 
been keeping so carefully, they now broke with- 
out any ceremony. The swords of Captain 
Newport, which he had sent up to Powhatan in 
exchange for the turkeys, undoubtedly began 
tlic trouble. The Indian monarch sent as many 
iQoro turkeys to Smith, expecting, of course, the 
same return that Xowport had previously made. 
But here he Avas disa})[)ointed. Smith promised 
any otlier kind of payment but that of weapons 
of any sort. Powhatan resented such conduct; 
and a rupture was the inevitable consequence. 

The trouble first began to show itself in the 
acts of thieving that annoyed the settlement 
so much. The Indians Vv^ould come and loiter 
around the place, and, wlic-n an opportunity 
offered, slily make off with such tools as they 
could suddenly lay their hands on. They stole 
everything that happened to come in their way. 
And the products of these thievish forays were 



17G CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

iavariably carried awav to Powhatan^ their king. 
He applauded their conduct^ and must have set 
it on foot in the first place. The authorities 
in England had Avarne 1 the colonists never to 
ofifend the Indians by offering them the least 
violence ; and so they grew raore and more bold 
in their operations Qvery d-dv. They would even 
climb in through the embrasures of the fort, and 
abstract anything that came readiest to their 
hand. 

Finally, Smith missed a couple of swords. He 
had himself borne with this inefficiency of the 
government as long as he could, and now he 
determined to take justice and its execution into 
his own hands. Sallying forth with a half-dozen 
men, he fell upon the red rascals with great 
vigor, and drove them off from the premises into 
the forest again. More than one of them was 
severely handled in the melee ; and they held the 
prowess of Smith in profound respect for quite 
a little time afterwards. But the old habits were 
soon resumed. The thieving instinct was much 
too strong to be resisted. At length enough of 
them one day crept into the fort to make the 
action worth undertaking, and Smith had all the 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 177 

ports suddenly shut up, so that they could not 
pass out again. Some dozen and a half were 
thus captured; and kept in close confinement. 
After a while, deputations came in from the 
tribes, demanding the release of the prisoners. 
They were told that it would be granted just as 
soon as all the articles stolen from the fort were 
returned ; and it was added, threateningly, that 
if those articles vreve not very soon brought 
back, the prisoners would be hung up from the 
trees. 

Presently, the Indians returned to the fort, 
bringing with them a couple of white men whom 
they had captured in the forest, walldng off 
stragghngly by themselves. The}' boastingly de- 
clared now. on their part, that unless the Indians 
within the fort were set at liberty, the two 
white men should be killed. There was but one 
wav bv which to proceed, and Smith hit upon it. 
Making an uuexpected saUy forth with a hand- 
ful of men, he succeeded by his boldness and 
vigor in driving off the impertinent rascals, and 
rescuing his two comrades from their unpleasant 
predicament. He brought them back safel}' into 



178 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

the fort; greatly to his satisfaction and their own 

joy. 

By dint of threats and persuasion together, 
the captured savages were made to give up an 
important secret of which they were the posses- 
sors. It came out that there existed a regularly 
organized conspiracy against Captain Smith on 
the part of the Indians, and that no less an indi- 
vidual than the old warrior, Powhatan himself, 
was at the bottom of the whole plot ! This was 
startling news, indeed. Smith had long had his 
suspicions excited, but now they were every one 
confirmed. The old Indian was full of deceit and 
hypocrisy His fair promises and professions 
were not worth a single straw. While he was 
-extending the pipe of peace with his one hand, 
he would gladly have thrust the glittering knife 
into the heart with the other. 

Whilst all this intelligence was making its way 
to the surface, Powhatan, rendered extremely 
uneasy at the present posture of affairs, thought 
it a good stroke of policy to send back the white 
boy that Newport had given him, with a present 
of wild turkeys to the colonists. Smith kept the 
turkeys and the boy too. Unwilling still to seem 



. JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 179 

displeased at the act, and desirous chiefly of 
apioeariiig conciliatory towards the s'ettlers, he 
made another effort, and sent his daughter Poca- 
hontas to beseech for him the release of the pris- 
oners. Smith could refuse all other petitioners 
with the utmost readiness ; but Pocahontas he 
could not find it in his heart to turn away. He 
was bound to her by too many ties of gratitude. 
Whatever she might ask, she should certainly 
obtain, though it cost her old friend the greatest 
struggle or sacrifice. Pocahontas also brought 
Captain Smith a present of deer's meat, and be- 
sought him most earnestly to release not only 
the captive Indians, but the detained white boy 
likewise. And her request was granted without 
either a protest or delay. Smith immediately 
gave up his prisoners, but he gave them only as 
a present to Powhatan's daughter. He did not 
admit that there was any justice in the demand, 
but vv^as quite willing to let them go on the score 
of gratefulness and generosity. 

There ensued some little trouble after this 
betw^een Radcliffe, the inefficient President of 
the Cf)uncil, and Captain Smith, the jDarticulars 
of which are hardly worthy of repetition. It 



180 - CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

was no more than the old story of a conflict 
between weakness and worthlessness on the one 
hand; and energy and courage on the other. The 
whole of Smith's experience in the colony was 
but the same story told over and over again. 

He had a natural dread of idleness, and a 
marked disposition to be continually employed. 
Few men could have found more jDleasure in 
activity than he. In obedience to this trait in 
his character, he projected at this time an ex- 
pedition of discovery up the Chesapeake Bay. 
There was a vast stretch of both land and water 
off in that direction, which he had a great desire 
to explore. So with fifteen men, including him- 
self, he took his departure in an open boat, on the 
second day of June, 1608, and steered for the 
outlet of -James River. Making Cape Charles, 
he descried some savages on the shore, who 
were soon made to understand that he was 
friendly to them, and who offered to conduct 
him and his party to their prince. Ilis place of 
residence was at Accomac. He received them 
all very kindly, and showed them great attention 
while they remained. * 

From Accomac they pushed on up the bay, 



JAMESTOWN AND POWHATAN. 181 

running into every little bay, inlet, and creek, 
that invited their prow. They were overtaken 
by thunder-storms and tempests. They lost their 
sails, and supplied the loss with their shirts. In 
some places the savages ran back into the for- 
ests, and climbed up into the trees to get a sight 
at the strangers. Kow and then they fell into 
Indian ambuscades, out of which nothing helped 
them but their murderous musketry. They 
steered still northward, and came to the mouth 
of the Patuxent ; and from this point they sailed 
further onward for some ninety miles, but saw 
nothing but grand and interminable forests, 
peopled thickly with wolves, and bears, and 
other wild beasts. 

The supplies ran low, and the men began to 
grow sick and discontented. Much against his 
will, therefore. Captain Smith was compelled to 
return. He did go back as far as the Potomac, 
and then succeeded in persuading the rest to 
take a short trip up this beautiful stream. They 
accordingly sailed as far upward as their incli- 
nation led them, falling in with tribe after tribe 
of Indians, some of them hostile, and some 
friendly. Again they were apprized of the 
16 



182 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

wicked intentions of Powhatan against the col- 
ony, and in due time the}^ turned back for the 
settlement. On the way, they fell in with canoes 
full of savages, whence they obtained fresh sup- 
plies of both meat and fish. Here and there 
they stopped to go on shore and search for the 
precious minerals ; but of course nothing came 
of such a delusion but the loss of their patience 
and labor. They easily caught fish from their 
boat, in some places ; and, in the course of the 
sport. Smith received such a wound in his hand 
as suddenly threatened his life. His arm Avas 
terribly swollen, and he expected to die. He 
was even carried on shore to select a spot for 
his burial ; and gave directions calmly to all 
respecting the future affairs of the settlement. 
But his valuable life was providentially pre- 
served, and he returned to the colony soon after 
to progress with the conduct of public matters 
as energetically as before. The fish, from whose 
sting he barely escaped death, was called the 
Stingray ; and to this day, the little island, 
northerly from the Rappahannock, where this 
untoward accident happened, is called after its 
name. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 

THINGS were in a truly bad condition at 
Jamestown when the explorers returned, 
arising not less from protracted and wide- 
spread sickness than from the slip-shod style in 
which the government was carried on. Almost 
as soon as Smith got home again, they chose him 
President of the Council. It appears that, after 
all, they had far greater faith in his energy and 
ability, than they ever had in their own vanity 
and self-conceit. But Smith wanted no office ; 
he desired nothing so much as to see them all 
make progress by themselves. There was noth- 
ing like a mean and selfish ambition in him. He 
declined their official gift, therefore, preferring 
to busy himself with making tours of discovery 
and exploration. 

He remained at Jamestown only a couple of 



184: CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

days after his return^ when he again set out with 
about as many men as before. First he went to 
the river Patapsco j and this stream he explored^ 
with its four distinct branches, to their several 
heads. He fell in with a tribe called the Massa- 
womeks, who offered his party battle ; but a lit- 
tle j)atience, and a few gifts ^ soon turned the 
hatred of the savages into open friendship. 
Then, after exchanging trinkets for supplies of 
bear's meat and venison, he came upon another 
tribe called tlie Tockwoghs, who dwelt on a lit- 
tle river of the same name. Here his experience 
was very similar with that among the people of 
the first tribe. Then he saw the Susquehan- 
nocks, who .were very large in stature, and for- 
midable to all their neighbors around ; and who 
clad themselves in the most fantastic manner, 
with skins of bears and wolves. Smith caused 
public worship to bo celebrated in the presence 
of these children of the forest ; and some of 
them afterwards offered him reverence as a su- 
perior being. They besought him to stay among 
them and become their emperor. They told him 
of other tribes living far beyond the mountains, 
and showed him many commodities which they 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 185 

could have obtained only througli the tribes that 
lived in Canada. 

Down the bay he sailed again, giving to every 
now place discovered an English name, boring- 
holes in the trees by which they might be recog- 
nized when he came that way again, piling up 
stones, and erecting crosses of wood. He fell 
in with a tribe called the Rappahannocks, who 
endeavored to seduce his party into an ambush ; 
but Smith was much too astute for them ; and 
presently a melee ensued, which cost the sav- 
ages one of their number, and sent them ail 
scampering into the woods with terror. 

During this voyage they lost one of their own 
men by a lingering fever; and there, on the 
shore, overshadowed by the forests that were 
centuries old, they dug his lonely grave, firing 
a sad volley' from their musketry over the body 
which they had laid away in its last rest. 

People after people, and tribe after tribe, he 
came in contact with, bringing them all into 
professedly friendly relations, and beating their 
savage prejudices, by violence Avhcn it was ne- 
cessary, out of them. On all hands he received 
ready promises of supplies of corn and meat, 
16- 



186 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

'It whenever the colony might happen to stand in 
need of them. And, finally, he turned his way 
homewards again. It would be rather tedious 
to give the various details of his visits to the 
several tribes, which, at best, were little more 
than one monotonous round of parleyings, 
threats, ambuscades, attacks, gifts, and promises 
of friendship. These recitals illustrate no new 
points in the manly character of Captain Smith, 
and could provoke little else than weariness in 
the mind of the reader. On the seventh day of 
September he reached the settlement of James- 
town once more, bringing with him a liberal 
supply of meat and fish, and several hundred 
bushels of Indian corn. During the course of 
these voyages he had acquainted himself thor- 
oughly with the shores and bays of the Chesa- 
peake, and, after his return, he sat down and 
drew a map of the same, which is to the present 
day in existence. In all, he had voyaged quite 
three thousand miles, and gone safely through 
an army of trials, that would put to its severest 
test the courage and endurance of men far more 
notable than he. 

Once more now the colonists offered him the 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 187 

Presidency. RadclifFe, the nominal President, was 
in confinement on a charge of mutiny^ and every- 
thing was in disorder and confusion. Only be- 
cause he saw that it was his duty to accept the 
office, did he consent to do so now. Accordingly, 
he took hold and addressed himself to the work to 
be done in downright earnest. The fort was at 
once put in complete order. The dwelhngs were 
repaired, and made as comfortable as possible. 
An addition was made to the public granary, 
inasmuch as a vessel was soon expected to 
arrive from England with new supplies. He 
likewise drew up the men within the fort every 
Saturday, and practised them in the use of their 
weapons with great industry. Immediately all 
things took a new turn, and another life and 
energy was apparent in every quarter. 

As expected, the vessel arrived very seasona- 
bly from Europe, bringing an addition of seventy 
members, of whom two were at once chosen to 
the council-board. In the ship came also two 
women, Mrs. Forest, and her maid, Anne Burras. 
These were the first English females ever within 
the limits of Virginia. 

Newport, who was the commander of the ves- 



188 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

sel, came clothed Avitli strange powers. It was 
plain enough that the officers of the Company in 
England did not begin to understand the very 
first essentials for the proper conduct of the 
colony. They invested the pompous captain 
witli almost supreme powers. In his hands were 
placed various presents, v/hich he was to bestow 
on the kingly Powhatan ; and among them such 
articles as a basin and ewer, a bed, bedstead, and 
clothes, and a mantle of scarlet velvet ; — odd 
gifts enough, any one will say, for an uncivilized 
inhabitant of the forests. He likewise brought 
over with him a glittering crown, which he was 
directed to place on the savage monarch's head, 
— as if such a piece of mummery as that could 
add in the least to his sense of royalty. 

Smith laughed at all these things, thinking 
them worse than foolish, as they were. And 
from ridicule he turned seriously to protesting. 
But one availed quite as much as the other. 
Newport was determined to carry out his instruc- 
tions ; and in. tliis resolution he was unanimously 
supported by the Council, save only Smith. 
And the misunderstanding between him and 
them finally grew so great, that Newport openly 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 189 

taunted liim with opposing tlio new projects 
only on account of his envy, hinting that ho 
would readily undertake the expedition himself, 
if he could but be placed at its head. This was 
more than the manly nature of Smith could bear. 
Instantly he assured Newport in the most ear- 
nest manner, that, to let him and the rest see how 
little he cared to be at the head of such an expe- 
dition, he would volunteer to go on a visit to 
Powhatan with only four men, and apprize the 
chieftain of the presents that were ready for 
him. They took him at his Avord ; and imme- 
diately Captain Smith set out with his handful 
of men for the dwelling of Powhatan, to invite 
him to Jamestown to receive the gifts. 

"When the little party reached the residence 
of the chief they found that he was absent. But 
his daughter Pocahontas at once despatched 
messengers for him, taking it upon herself, in 
the mean while, to entertain the ncAvly-arrived 
guests. As her father would not be back before 
the next day, she set about her amusements 
without further delay. 

She led them to an open space in the forest, 
had a blazing fire made, and bade them seat 



190 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

themselves on mats that were placed around it. 
Then she gave a signal, and suddenly from the 
woods around broke forth such a shriek and 
shout as startled them every one in alarm to 
their feet. They suspected an ambuscade. It 
took some time, and many protestations, on the 
part of Pocahontas to reassure them, nor would 
they take their seats again till she consented to 
sit down in their midst. • Then the show went 
on, and a wild affair it certainly must have been. 

Thirty Indian damsels rushed out from the 
secret recesses of the forest, all painted and be- 
decked in the most grotesque style imaginable. 
Smith described them as obeying a leader ; and 
this leader had a pair of buck's horns on her 
head, an otter's skin about her waist, a quiver 
filled with arrows at her back, and a bow in 
her hand. He could find no word in the lan- 
guage fit to apply to them, but the single word 
" fiends ; " and he called their proceedings " hell- 
ish " in the extreme. After dancing, and yelling, 
and singing, to their hearts' desire, they ran back 
into the forest as suddenly as they had first 
emerged from it, and all was silent again. 

Next they tried a different sort of treatment 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 191 

with the strangers. They began to caress and 
fondle them in the most affectionate manner. 
And when this second scene was acted through, 
torches were hghted, and by the blaze they were 
conducted away to their place of rest for the 
night. How much the poor, frightened fellows 
slept who came with Smith, it does not so readily 
appear. Probably, however, but a trifle at the 
best. ♦ 

Early in the following day Powhatan returned 
from his absence. He appeared glad to see 
Smith and his friends, and listened calmly to 
learn the errand on which they had come. But 
when he was informed that he was expected at 
Jamestown himself to receive the presents sent 
over from England, he hesitated in his expres- 
sions of thanks, and at length declined the honor 
altogether. ^^ No," said he ; " if you have gifts 
for me from your great king, bring them to me 
where I am. I, also, am a king myself." There 
was nothing more to be said. 

So Smith carried back the chieftain's proud 
answer to the Council, and they were forced to 
obey the command it secretly contained. The 
presents were sent forward by the river, and 



192 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Newport and Smith, with an escort of fifty men, 
j^rocecded by land to the Indian lodge. 

Of course there was an unusual parade made 
over such a silly proceeding, as any one who 
understood the character of NoAvport would sup- 
pose. Powhatan received the party with all the 
ceremony possible on the occasion, and accepted 
their gifts with but a moderate degree of delight. 
The scarlet cloak he was very loth to have thrown 
over his shoulders ; and it was not until Namou- 
tack, the Indian lad who had been sent over to 
England with Newport, had explained the use of 
the garment, that he would consent to receive it 
into his savage wardrobe. 

But the ceremony of the coronation was about 
as ridiculous an affair as can well be imagined. 
The old chieftain' — who, it will be remembered, 
Avas very much taller than any of his white vis- 
itors — felt no inclination to submit to any such 
performance, and for some time Vv^ondered in 
silence what could be the meaning of their con- 
duct. AVhen at last he was made to understand a 
little better the significance of the ceremony, he 
quietly acquiesced in its progress. They told him, 
therefore, that he must kneel when he received 



BMITH AMONG THE SAYAGES. 193 

tlio crown, for that was the custom witli their 
own kings ; but he answered them as decidedly 
that he would not ; and for a long time they Avere 
hi a deep perplexity to know how they were to 
untie so intricate a knot. .At length, however, 
after consultation among themselves, it was 
thought to be as well to invest him with the 
croAvn in a standing posture ; and, in order the 
more easily to get at the top of his head, they 
laid their arms heavily upon his shoulders, and 
steadily bore him down Avith all their united 
weight. And this was the coronation scene. 
Could a greater, or rather a smaller farce be 
enacted ? 

Newport wished to have the affair go off as 
impressively as possible ; so he arranged that 
as soon as the coronation Avas over, signal guns 
should bo fired from the boats in the river. The 
sound of these frightened the suspicious Poav- 
hatan again, and it took a great deal of explana- 
tion to conA'ince him that no harm Avas meant, 
but rather that the Avhole Avas performed in his 
honor. Finally, to testify his sense of gratitude 
to the AAdiite men, he made NoAvport a present 
of his old robe and moccasins, and afterAvards 
IT 



194 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

added about eight biisliels of corn to tlio signifi- 
cant gift. And this was all that came from the 
magnificent preparations that had been made in 
England for the Indian monarch's coronation, — 
a pair of old shoes, and an old cast-off robe, 
together with a few bushels of corn ! Certainl}^, 
to employ a common figure of comparison, New- 
port and the Council had come out at the little 
end of the horn. 

After this, Newport led off a certain number 
of the men on a foolish tramp among a tribe of 
Indians called tlie ]Monacans; but he encountered 
nothing but disappointment and sickness^ and 
soon brought back his party to Jamestown nearly 
worn down w^ith fatigue. Smith in the mean 
while went ahead perseveringly with such labors 
as were necessary to obtain a proper freight for 
the ship ; and in a little while he had set the 
greater part of them busily to work manufac- 
turing tar and pitch, felling trees, and turning 
out clapboards. No one of them all exerted 
himself so much as he ; dreading neither fatigue 
nor exposure, shrinking from no sort of labor or 
fasting, and continually inspiring the others with 
fresh zeal by his own contagious example. 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 195 

He invented a novel method^ too, by wliicli to 
break the men who worked with him of the 
habit of using profane language ; and tliat Avas 
this — each one counted his fellow-workman's 
oaths during the day ; and, at night, for every 
oath that had been used, a pail of cold water 
was poured down the guilty person's sleeve. It 
was soon found to have an excellent effect. 

When he had finished this work in the woods, 
he discovered that nothing had been done 
towards freighting the vessel by the rest, and 
he came near losing his patience at the thought 
of it. Newport and Radcliffe (who had managed 
to get released from his confinement) both hated 
him for his superior energy, and would gladly 
have effected his ruin if it had been in their 
power. There was nothing but wrangling, and 
dispute, and envy, and malice, at the settlement 
for a long time. Newport insisted that he must 
carry back gold-dust enough to England to pay 
for the value of the cargo ho brought over, 
which would amount to nearly ten thousand dol- 
lars ; and he threatened, if ho could not do so, 
to withdraw immediately wltli his supplies, and 
leave the colony to its own destruction. But 



196 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Smith kept at work preparing lumber, tar, pitch, 
potash, and glass, knowing well enough that 
there was no such thing as gold-dust to be got 
in the whole region ; and, when the vessel did 
sail at last with the freight that Smith's industry 
had alone provided, it carried along with it a 
long letter from his own pen to the officers and 
managers of the Company, explaining to them 
the exact state of affairs in the colony, and vin- 
dicating them all from such aspersions as New- 
port was but too willing to heap upon them. 
This letter was a plain statement of facts, and 
just such an one as any distant Company would 
desire to receive from the persons with whom it 
had entrusted its venture abroad. 

Counting in the last load of emigrants that 
Newport had brought over to Jamestown with 
him, there were now some two hundred persons 
in the colony. Scarce any provision had, as yet, 
been made for their subsistence, and a winter 
that promised to be unusually severe was fast 
coming on. There was but one course now left 
to be pursued ; and that was, to go among the 
neighboring tribes for supplies of corn without 
delav. 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 197 

• Accordingly, Captain Smith set out with a 
small party on the errand. Arriving among the 
Indians, he found that the very ones who had 
promised to furnish him but a little time before, 
now utterly refused to have an}^ dealings with 
him whatever. He brought his guns to bear at 
once on such, and extorted from them a part 
only of what they had so fairly promised. He 
likewise threatened to burn down the wigwams 
of some, and so brought tliem to their senses. 
He and his party slept out at night in the snow, 
making their beds the best wa}^ they could about 
fires which they kindled at the roots of trees. 
From one point to another they passed along in 
this way, till they at last succeeded "in filling 
their boat, Avdien they returned home again. 

But these slender supplies were still entirely 
inadequate to the large demand at the settle- 
ment. So Smith started forth on another trip, 
commanding two boats that were filled with men. 
He managed to effect a trade with only one tribe ; 
and, with what corn he had procured, went back 
to Jamestown again. Then he ascertained that 
another party had sallied out, during his absence, 
IT- 



198 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

in another direction ; but tlieir errand provq^ 
nothing but a failure. 

This rather discouraged him. Winter was 
wearing on ; the cold was intense ; hunger, 
ftimine, and a lingering death, stared them all 
in the face. Better to die trying to do some- 
thing, thought he, than in indolence or repining. 
And a third time he fitted out an expedition, re- 
solved now to make a vigorous and final effort 
for the relief of the colony, for which he had 
staked everything. 

He was satisfied, from the trouble he had expe- 
rienced in trading with the Indians all around 
him, that they had been directed to withhold from 
him any farther present supplies : and, when he 
came to turn the matter over more seriously in 
his mind, it became evident that Powhatan him- 
self was at the bottom of mischief so unexpected. 
Smith was a man of decision, as well as of energy; 
and he resolved to go directly now to Powhatan, 
and openly charge him with his mean duplicity ; 
and, for the next step following, to capture the 
wily old Indian's person, and make himself mas- 
ter of the provisions that were hoarded in his 
camp. It was a bold undertaking, and therefore 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 199 

did not receive the nnailimons support of the 
Council. Only one of that body agreed with 
him in the propriety of the plan. 

As it happened, while this question was in the 
midst of its discussion, Powhatan sent word to 
Captain Smith that he would be glad to have 
him come and see him at his camp. He likewise 
begged the captain to bring along with him a 
grindstone, some guns, and fifty swords ; and 
promised that he would give him a ship-full of 
corn in exchange for them. And, furthermore, 
he asked to have sent him a few men, who could 
build for him such a house as the white people 
had in England, and which the Indian lad, Na- 
moutack, had probably described to him, since 
his return with Captain Newport. 

Smith made ready to obey the monarch's re- 
quest, but, only so far as he thought prudent for 
his own purpose. He did not carry the swords 
asked for, nor the guns ; he knew better than 
that. But, taking the pinnace and two barges, 
and loading them with forty-six men, and j^ro- 
visions for only four days, he set sail with a 
heart full of courage and resolution. 

It WPS not until after several stops, and many 



200 (.'APT. JOHN SMITir. 

days had elapsed, that lie reached the kingly res- 
idence of Powhatan. The party left Jamestown 
some time in the latter part of December, and 
arrived at Werowocomoco about the twelfth of 
January. They were obliged to break through 
the ice in the river before they could reach the 
shore ; and, immediately after setting foot on 
the land, word was sent to Powhatan that they 
were in great need of something to eat. Pow- 
hatan immediately sent them back an ample sup- 
jdI}^ of meal, wild turkeys, and venison. And the 
next day he received the invited j^arty to his 
own lodge, and made them a bountiful feast. 

But, as soon as they had finished eating, he 
turned and very abruptly asked to know when 
they were going' away again. Smith answered 
him they had come there only at his own special 
invitation. Powhatan denied ever having asked 
them to come at all ; and, in answer to Smith's 
questions, said that he had no corn to spare, and 
would, on no condition, let them have any, except 
at the price of a sword for each basket-full. lie 
vfas simply bent on obtaining the same weapons 
that the English used themselves. 

Seeing how the matter stood, and thinking 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 201 

there was no further time or temper to be lost 
in this foolish parleying, Captain Smith said to 
the chieftain, — '^ Powhatan, I had many ways 
by which to get corn for the colony, but I let 
tliem all go in order to let you see my confi- 
dence in 3^our promises. I have brought you 
men to build 3^ou a house. I told you, some time 
ago, that w^e had no guns or swords to spare, 
and wish you to understand that those we have 
got, are abundantly able to keep us from want ! 
Yet vv^e will not steal ; we will have provisions 
in the regular way of trade ! " 

Powhatan looked serious, and promised the 
captain that in two days he should have all the 
corn that he and his people could collect to- 
gether. But he insisted on the party's leaving 
their weapons in the boats when they came on 
shore again, as the sight of them frightened his 
own men away. Smith, however, understood 
the savage nature too well to accede to such a 
request as this. And nothing, after all, came of 
the conference. 

The men, whom he had given Powhatan to 
build him a house, and who happened to be 
Dutchmen, only proved themselves traitors to 



202 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

the colony. Smith had selected one of them to 
act as a spy on Powhatan, and report his obser- 
vations from time to time ; but he was the very 
one who soonest went over to the allurements 
of the savage, and in fact assisted him most 
effectually in maturing his project for the exter- 
mination of the white settlement. Of course 
Smith knew nothing of this at the time ; but it 
all came out after many months, though not until 
the base treachery had well-nigh succeeded in 
doing its work. 

From one day to another, the Indians traded 
a little ; but that was simply to put at rest any 
suspicions that Smith might have had of their 
hostile intentions. Powhatan's attention was 
chiefly directed to the weapons that the party 
were careful to carry about them, and he vainly 
exerted himself to induce Captain Smith to have 
them left behind in the boats. He and the cap- 
tain held long talks together on the subject ; in 
which the shrewdness of the one party is seen 
to be very fairly matched by that of the other, 
and all the progress that is sought to be made 
on one side is evenly met with resistance and 
firmness on the other. Powhatan even grew 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. '203 

eloquent in liis language, rising to a pitch of 
passionateness that was, in fact, highly imposing. 
He held out the most peaceful professions. He 
protested his perfect innocence of all the mean 
suspicions that had been brought against him. 
He was exceedingly sorry that his white friends 
had so little confidence in him, that they refused 
to leave their guns behind when they came on 
shore. He begged that a better understanding 
might, for the future, exist between them, and 
hoped that the white men would be to his people 
only friends, and henceforth trade with them on 
terms of peace and equity. 

Smith, however, did not yield a single point to 
the savage's art. His long experience among 
the red men furnished him with a far safer guide 
than- Powhatan could. He put off the chieftain, 
therefore, Avith his most artful speeches ; and his 
followers still continued to carry their weapons 
about them as before. 

"While this talk was being carried on, Powhatan 
was quietly multiplying the number of warriors 
about him. Smith saw the impending danger, 
and hastened to provide against it. Accord- 
ingly, he requested some of the Indians to go 



204 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

and help break the ice in the river, so that his 
men might bring the boat to the shore and take 
on board himself and what corn he had already 
bought. And, at the same time, he sent a mes- 
sage to the men in the boats, bidding them come 
on shore at once, and assist him in the capture 
of Powhatan, which he meditated. Then, to 
effect a little longer delay for the better success 
of his plan, he began to address Powhatan once 
more on the subject about which they had for 
some time been cojiversing. 

The savage chieftain evidently saw what Smith 
was at, and accordingly determined to act with 
despatch. He and Smith were talking in a hut, 
with only a single friend of the latter present. 
At a silent signal from Powhatan, the hut was 
immediately surrounded with warriors. The old 
chieftain found an excuse to slip out through the 
door, and then the savages began to press in. 
There was no time left for thought ; nothing but 
action could now avail to save our hero from the 
threatening danger. He flourished his sword and 
pistol over his head with an arm full of vigor, 
and infused such sudden terror in the dusky 
crowd that they all gave way, and made a free 



SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES. 205 

passage for him tlirough the door. Putting 
himself at the head of his men, Avho had now 
reached the shore, he demanded an explanation 
from Powhatan of his conduct. It was given ; 
but the hypocrisy of the savage was too trans- 
parent to deceive even the dimmest vision. He 
said that he went off because he was afraid of 
the white men who were coming on shore ; but 
he did not seem inclined to think that the crowd 
of his own Avarriors, which he had assembled, 
was vastly more than enough to oppose, and 
even to destroy, all the white men of Captain 
Smith's party. 

But our hero affected to overlook the matter, 
and set his men to loading the boats with what 
corn he had already managed to purchase. They 
worked busily till night ; and then, as the tide 
went down and left their boats on the mud, they 
returned to the shore again, and prepared to pass 
the hours till morning. During the still night- 
watches. Smith felt a hand laid gently on his arm, 
and aroused himself to know what it meant. Po- 
cahontas was standing at his side ! She warned 
him of the danger that he and his party were in 
there, and told him of her father's intention yet 

1 V 



206 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

to surprise them at a great feast that he was to 
give ; and implored him, if he wished to save his 
life, to be gone from his present place of rest at 
the earliest possible moment. 

This Avas the second time that she had volun- 
tarily placed herself between him and his im- 
pending destruction. The hand of Providence 
was certainly to be seen in it. With the early 
morning, therefore, he took his departure, much 
against the wishes of Powhatan and his party, 
but still preserving the appearance of friendship 
to the last. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 

AS soon now as he could, — it is to be sup- 
posed that it was on the very next day, 
— Smith and his party took their leave 
in the boats, and j^repared to return again to 
Jamestown. He had not yet supplied himself 
with what corn he had come after, and so 
thought it would be as well to make brief calls 
upon the several tribes along the way. 

Just as soon as he had turned his back upon 
the place of Powhatan's residence, the Dutch- 
men, whom he had sent the chief to assist in 
building him a house after the English style, 
began openly to show the depravity that was 
the characteristic of their natures. Two of them 
immediately volunteered to hurry off to James- 
town, and, by false representations, obtain the 
swords and guns that Captain Smith had declined 



208 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

bringing along with him. The proposal pleased 
Powhatan exceedingly. It was for just such a 
purpose as this that he desired to keep these 
treacherous men, and not with any wish to have 
them erect him a house, or perform any other 
service of that kind. And, when he had suc- 
ceeded in getting the weapons he so much 
wanted from the fort, he intended to make them 
initiate him and his warriors into their familiar 
use. 

The base fellows accordingly set out for the 
fort at the settlement, where they arrived safely 
and seasonably. Captain Wynne was in com- 
mand. Of course Captain Smith had not got 
back yet, and that they well understood. So 
they laid before the commandant a long and 
highly plausible story about the success of 
Smith's expedition, telling him how they had 
left him with Powliatan, and that he had sent by 
them for certain weapons which he wished to 
barter with the Indians for corn and provisions. 
They likewise represented that Smith stood in 
want of clothes, and tools of various kinds. In 
addition to this, they found means to lay in \vith 
a few restless and dissatisfied seamen, who im- 



THE HAND OF THE MASTEII. 209 

proved their opportunity to secrete what arti- 
cles they could, embracing powder, shot, guns, 
and swords, and who thus fiihihed the desire of 
Powhatan even more promptly than he could 
himself have thought it possible. In all, eight 
guns, fifty swords, and three hundred hatchets, 
were stealthilj^ carried away to the enemies of 
the infant settlement. Thc}^ were all received 
very gladly by Powliatan, who could not control 
or conceal his joy. The two Englishmen that 
had been left with the Dutchmen in the Indian 
camp, for the purpose of erecting a house for 
Powhatan, were greatly frightened at what they 
saw, and at the earliest moment attempted an 
escape. But tiie savages were a little too watch- 
ful for them, and they were brought back, and 
for a long time kept in continual fear of death 
at their hands. 

Passing along from one place to another, Smith 
found himself at the residence of his old acquaint- 
ance, Opechancanough. This chieftain, it will be 
recollected, was generall}^ called the brother of 
Powhatan. He received the captain with much 
friendliness, and made feasts for his party that 
consumed several days. Then a time was ap- 
18-^ 



210 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

pointed for trading ; and all the Indians, far and 
near, were summoned to attend upon the impor- 
tant transaction. On the morning agreed tipon, 
Smith took a dozen or fifteen men with him, and 
went from the boats to the village. It was en- 
tirely deserted. There was nothing left, either 
within or without the settlement. This greatly 
surprised Captain Smith, who expected to find 
the place alive with preparations for business. 
But soon Opechancanough came in sight, accom- 
panied by a few chosen warriors. He brought 
little or no provisions with him, and his men 
were well armed with bows and arrows. This 
looked like anything but a disposition for peace- 
ful trade, and Smith at once opened on the 
chieftain in Avords that had no very honeyed 
accent. 

"You have deceived us," said he, in efiect, 
*'and the love you have professed is nothing but 
baseness and falsehood. Last year you filled 
our boats ; now you are willing to let us starve. 
You know that we are in want, and I know that 
you have a plenty. In some way or other, 1 
must have a part of what you have got. You 
are a king^ and I expect you to keep your word 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 211 

faithfully. Here are my articles of trade ; let me 
see your grain in exchange for them." 

The Indian was at once ivliipped into compli- 
ance with Smith's demand^ and gave up what 
corn he could then command, at fair rates of 
compensation. Next day it was promised there 
should be larger supplies on hand. So the next 
day Smith was punctual to the hour appointed. 
He saw at first only a few baskets of corn, but 
no one who looked like the Indian king. Pres- 
ently, however, the latter made his appearance. 
He was very stiff in his manner, and shoAved lit- 
tle feeling in his expressions of friendship and 
kindness. He kept telling, too, how much trouble 
it had given him to collect what grain he had. 
But, while he was speaking, the hut was sur- 
rounded by a large crowd of Indians, numbering 
five hundred and over ! 

All the rest of the party were frightened be- 
yond description. But Smith remained surpris- 
ingly collected and calm. He delivered to his' 
handful of followers an off-hand speech, that was 
a very model of bravery and courage, and told 
them to look to him and to their own valor for a 
safe 'deliverance. Opechancanough stood by, not 



212 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

a little terrified at the shape matters appeared to 
be talcing. Smith turned sliortly round upon 
him, and spoke tlms : 

" Opechancanough, I see your plan to murder 
me ; but I fear it not. As yet, your men and 
mine have done no harm, but by our direction. 
Take, therefore, your weapons. You see mine. 
My body shall be as naked as yours. The island 
in your river shall be a fit place, if you be con- 
tented. There let us tivo Jigld it out, and the sur- 
vivor shall be lord and master over all our men. 
Let your men bring, each of them, a basket of 
corn, against all of which I will stake the value 
in copper ; and the conqueror shall taJce the 
loholeJ^ 

It is not to be concluded that a person, who 
would stealthily take advantage of another to 
murder him, Avould have the manly courage to 
accept so equal a challenge as that. The Indian 
chieftain did not. Yet he was quite unwilling that 
Smith should think him his enemy, and seemed 
hurt that he should entertain such a cruel sus- 
picion. To try and set the matter at rest, there- 
fore, ho asked Captain Smith to go into a hut, 
close by, with him, saying that he had there a 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 213 

valuable present for liini. Smith's eyes were open 
wide enough, and he refused to go. He saw the 
many savages that were lying in wait, with their 
drawn bows, for his destruction, and felt sure 
that he had already penetrated to the very heart 
of his danger. The Indian would not listen to 
his proposal that the others of his company 
should go for the present, insisting that no one 
but their leader would satisfy him. 

The action of our hero v»'as immediate and 
decisive. Seizing the rascally savage by the 
long scalp-lock that crowned his head, he pulled 
him forth like a timid sheep from the midst of his 
warriors, helpless and unresisting, and presented 
a pistol to his naked breast, prepared to put a 
hasty termination to his existence. So suddenly 
was the thing done, that the whole crowd of 
Indians were struck dumb with astonishment. 
To treat their chieftain in such a way, seemed 
nothing less than sacrilege ; and he must be an 
uncommon, if not a superior being, who would 
dcire make an attempt in rQspect of which they 
were themselves but the most pusillanimous 
cowards. 

The result of this bold act was seen every- 



214: CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

where in a moment. All came obediently to the 
commanding hand of our hero, and threw their 
weapons away without a further thought of fear 
or of defence. The chieftain himself gave in his 
adherence to the power of his conqueror, and 
that, too, without reservation or any splitting of 
words. And, with his hand still tightly grasping 
the hair of his giant enemy, Smith turned round 
and made a very pointed speech to the crowds 
of red-skins that looked on witli such a strange 
confusion of emotions. Among the many other 
things which he took occasion to speak about, 
he remarked to them, " You promised to freight 
my ship ere I departed ; and so you shall, or I 
will load her with your dead carcasses ! " Such 
decided language as that needed no interpreter. 
It is ver}'- likely that his looks alone Avere quite 
sufficient to act a.s interpreters to his words. 

While he stayed there with them, or was pur- 
suing his journey among the other neighboring- 
tribes in quest of supplies, there occurred an 
accident at the settlement that threw a deep 
cloud of gloom over everything connected with 
its welfare. Scrivener, during the protracted 
absence of Smith and his party, took it into his 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 215 

head to make a short trip in a boat to an island 
that was not flxr off, though the direct object of 
the sail does not seem to be mentioned. Yfaldo 
accompanied him on the excursion, and Gosnold, 
likewise, with eight others. It was very cold 
weather, and the wind was exceedingly high. 
By some blundering in the management of the 
boat^ it was suddenly swamped beneath the 
waves, and every soul on board drowned ! The 
Indians near by were the first to discover the 
disaster, and they succeeded in recovering the 
bodies from the water. The colonists were for 
some time loth to credit the tidings of this fear- 
ful catastrophe ; but it could not long remain an 
idle tale. They despatched a trusty messenger to 
Powhatan's camp with the news, expecting it 
would there find Captain Smith. The bearer of 
the intelligence, however, was disappointed in 
learning that the latter had already gone, and ho 
was compelled to stay over night in the camp 
before resuming his journey. xVgain Pocahontas 
interposed her angehc assistance, and saved the 
poor fellow from the murder that Powhatan had 
planned for him during his brief stay. He finally 
escaped, and, after wandering about for three 



216 CAPT. JOirN SMITH, 

"wearisomo dayr^, found Captain Smith and his 
party, and communicated to him the sad news 
from the settlement. Then he told them of his 
interview with Powhatan^ and of tlie extensive 
preparations the latter Vv'as making to carry on a 
Yv'ar against the whites^ and particularly against 
Idmj — their leader. 

This last news was quite enough for a spirit 
so energetic as Smith's. He instantly formed 
the resolution to go against the savage emperor 
without further delay, and, if possible^ to capture 
him in the midst of his infamous and hostile 
preparations. A quick sail brought him back 
once more to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan 
lived, and he hurried on shore to execute ven- 
geance on the faithless chieftain, Ijcfore the lat- 
ter could be apprized of his intentions. What 
was his deep chagrin, however, to find not only 
that Powhatan had gone, Init that he had taken 
good care to remove all his warriors and pro- 
visions Avitli hi]ri I Tlie huts Avere every one 
deserted of their inhabitants. The place was as 
silent as any part of the unsettled wilderness. 
The treacherous Dutchmen, Vvdiom Smith had 
sent Powhatan, were at the bottom of this 



tl'j: iiamj of tiii-j master. 217 

.sudrjen movement, Ijaving infiuonccd tlio chiofl 
tain to desert liLs reBidencCj and Ijetake himself 
to a liiding-placc further removed intrj the in- 
terior. 

Smitli was greatly vexed at this disappoint- 
ment, and tried to make the l^est of it, as he did 
of everything. .Securing what he had already 
managed to obtain, he turned his Ijoats' prows 
down the river again homewards. 

When lie reached Jamestown, and began to 
look into tlie state of matters at the settlement, 
he was mucli troubled to find them in such a 
loose and unpromising condition. A great part 
of the needful implements of labor, together with 
guns, pikes, and swords, had been stolen during 
his absence ; tlie provisions had not been prop- 
erly cared for, and Iiad, thereby, been suffered to 
rot, decay, and become infested Avith vermin ; 
the men of the Council liad been dro^vned while 
on that unfortunate and aimless excursion which 
they saw fit to make on tlieir owji responsibil- 
ity ; ajjd a disposition to discord and anarchy 
seemed at last to be really making headway 
through all the discouraged ranks. .Smith was 
still tlieir President, and he immediately set to 
10 



218 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

work to exercise judicioiis authority. He knew 
very well how idleness adds to the insupportable 
weight of complaint^ and how a little cheerful 
industry has the powder to dissipate all the ills 
that brood perpetually over unquiet hearts. 
And he put them to newly-devised tasks without 
delay, looking to the secret influence of labor for 
a more contented state of public feeling. Nor 
was he disappointed in his hope. 

The thefts that were daily practised at length 
excited his suspicions to a very high pitch. He 
watched matters with exceeding closeness^ de- 
termined to trace out the real cause of this 
serious loss, and satisfy himself in just what 
quarter it had its existence. The longer he 
scrutinized matters, the better he became satis- 
fied in his own mind where the stolen articles 
went. It was plain that there were persons 
within the fort who secretly acted in connec- 
tion with others outside the fort. The outsiders 
were none other than the two Dutchmen, who, 
instead of being at work on Powhatan's house, 
were laboring in every imaginable way to com- 
pass the destruction of the colony. 

It happened that there was a little hut in the 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 219 

forest, wliicli they called the " glass-house/' about 
a mile away from Jamestown, where these sev- 
eral conspirators were accustomed to meet and 
concoct their diabolical jDlans. They finally ar- 
ranged among themselves that Captain Smith 
should be cautiously enticed by some of them 
into an ambush, and then suddenly set upon and 
destroyed. The plan was well matured, and 
all its minute particulars carefully arranged. 
A band of forty or fifty Indians were to lie 
in wait, and, on the appointed signal, were 
to rush uj)on liim, and despatch him without 
mercy. 

The Dutchmen with Powhatan had sent for- 
ward a man, named Francis, disguised in the 
dress of an Indian, to make observations at the 
glass-house, and bring back faithful reports. 
Smith heard of his approach, and of his pecuhar 
disguise, and immediately sent out two bodies 
of men, — one to the glass-house directly, and 
another, numbering twenty men in all, around to 
the rear of the place, where they might intercept 
his course, if the first party should happen to 
miss of him. Those who went to the glass- 
house failed of their errand ; but the others 



220 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

were more successful. They apprehended the 
villain as he was hurrying back to PoAvhatan's 
lodge, and brought him on with them to the 
settlement. 

With the first party Smith himself Avent. Not 
finding their desired prisoner, they returned at 
once to Jamestown. Smith slowly followed on, 
absorbed in thought, and probably perplexed to 
know how to free the little colony from its 
unhappy dilemma. While walking on thus alone 
a gigantic Indian j^laced himself directly in his 
path, challenging his further advance. The 
savage was the King of Paspahegh ; and his 
strength and stature were well known and gen- 
erally wondered at by all the tribes of Avarriors, 
as well as by the Avhite settlers themselves. 
This king was, as it happened, entrusted with 
the plan of the ambush into which Captain Smith 
was expected to fall. 

First, the savage tried to entice our hero away 
in the direction of his concealed warriors ; but 
the latter was too prudent for him, and would 
not obey his invitation. Then the fellow thought 
that, as they were alone together, and he was 
himself much the larger and stronger of the two, 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 221 

it would Lo a very easy matter to vanqiiisli the 
famous leader of the Avliites in single combat, 
and bear inva}- tlie renown of so noted an ex- 
ploit altogether by himself. Accordingly, he 
drew his bow, and was about to shoot Smith 
before he could rouse himself to the act of self- 
defence. The latter never was a man to be 
behindhand in any sort of business. He rushed 
up to his adversary before he could let his arrow 
fly from the string, and closed in with him in a 
conflict to Avhich his own courage was willing to 
allow the thought of but one result, and that 
a speedy victory. Smith had no Aveapon but a 
broad fldchion, and it Avas his enemy's main 
object to prevent his drawing it on him. The. 
latter was possessed of Avonderful muscularity 
and strength, and looked as if he had the power 
to crush so much smaller a man, as Captain 
Smith was, in his very palm. But Smith knew 
how to scuflle and Avrestlo as skilfully as the 
best at that business. In ordinary rough-and- 
tumble contests there Avere A^ery fcAv men of 
his time Avho could make boast of greater expe- 
rience or prowess. 

He finally managed to get the infamous savage 



222 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

near the edge of the river, where the water was 
rather shallow, and then both of them plumped 
straight in. For a long time it was a continued 
scene of wresthng, and hugging, and dancing, 
and splashing. No advantage seemed to be 
gained on either side. The Indian was strong, 
but nothing in the world could be stronger than 
the heart and the will of his persevering antag- 
onist. By some means the latter managed finally 
to get a tight grip on the savage's throat ; and 
in this Avay he held him, with his head down to 
the water, till he could draAV his weapon and 
prepare to sever the latter from his body. Then 
the rascal began to beg ; and, in such earnest 
and piteous accents did he implore his victor to 
spare his life, that his prayers for mercy were 
heeded at last, and he was carried away to the 
settlement as a witness against those who had 
still more basely conspired against our hero's 
life. There he was secured in chains, to await 
the uses to wdiich the valiant President de- 
signed to jout him, before his work Avith him 
was finished. 

Francis, who had been captured and brought 
to the fort, was at once put on trial for his 



THE HAND OP THE JIASTER. 223 

treason. Paspahegli camo forward Avith most 
conclusive testimony against him. The case 
was as plain as any case could be ; yet, not- 
withstanding his conviction by a jur}^, Smith 
was unwilling to administer to him anything like 
the cruel punishment that the times Avould have 
allowed. Ho mercifully spared his life, though 
he did not let him go Avithout correction. In 
the generous and manly nature of Captain Smith 
there was little that savored of a spirit of 
revenge. He harbored no feeling related to 
cruelty. He might be called rough, but he bore 
no malice in his heart. He labored continually 
for the prosperity of others, and, only when he 
saAv their highest good advanced, did he seem 
himself to confess to a feeling like happiness or 
satisfaction. 

He Avas especially desirous to lay hands on 
the Dutchmen AAdio were Avith PoAvhatan, and for 
that purpose still kept his Indian prisoner in 
close confinement at the fort, hoping by and by 
to effect an equal exchange for them. But Poaa^- 
hatan Avas not ready for such an arrangement ; 
and, in the mean Avhile, Paspahegh made his 
escape. Smith sent out parties to re-capture 



224 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

him ; but they ah returned without accomphsh- 
ing anything. They did not know how to take 
advantage of favorable opportunities for action, 
and let their only chances of success slip by 
unimproved. Smith was the single man of them 
all, of whom the savages stood in any awe, or 
towards whom they thought it worth their while 
to show much of anything like respect. He was 
sufficient of himself to keep them in continual 
check, and able to inspire them Avith a regard 
from whose mysterious influence they could not 
escape. A variety of incidents, too, — such as 
restoring an Indian to life after being nearly 
suffocated "with the fumes of charcoal, and cur- 
ing another of the dreadful Avounds caused- by 
an explosion of gunpowder, — served very soon 
to establish him more deeply in the good opin- 
ion of the chieftains, and finally to change the 
whole feeling of old Powhatan himself toward 
him. The latter began to be affected very se- 
riously by his superstitious sentiments, and came 
soon to look upon the leading man of the set- 
tlement in an almost reverential light, deeming 
him a being Avith AAdiom it Avas by far the best 



THE HAND OF THE MASTER. 225 

policy to live on as peaceful and friendly terms 
as possible. 

And so it not long after came to pass, tliat 
everything like warfare died out between the 
whites and the proud Indian emperor, and the 
whole land was subject to the reign of an influ- 
ence that is much more powerful than that of 
passion and malice, because it is the blessed 
reign of peace. 

Captain Smith lost no time in setting himself 
to work in bettering the condition of the col- 
ony ; but began at once to build new houses, 
to erect another fort, to reconstruct the old 
church, to parcel out the settlers in j^arties best 
adapted to their o^vn permanent thrift, and to 
frame anew the laws and regulations by which 
their internal affairs might move on from day to 
day still more happily and harmoniously. In 
everything his individual hand was to be seen. 
Nothing that he could do himself, did he ever 
leave for anotlier to perform. To every emer- 
gency he proved himself fortunately equal. 
His remarkable industry was matched by noth- 
ing but his invincible courage and fortitude. 
Early and late he followed up closely his own 



226 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

brave designs, suffering himself to be turned 
neither to the right hand nor the left by any of 
those perplexing trifles that would have made 
a common man sometimes indifferent to the end 
he had first proposed to attain. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 

THUS struggling in every way to keep up 
the courage and spirits of the colonists, 
denying himself the enjoyment of even 
those commonest comforts that were yet to be 
secured for his brethren, and carefully conceal- 
ing from them the many doubts, and fears, and 
anxieties, that sometimes haunted his thoughts 
of the future. Captain Smith led them slowly 
along from point to point in their precarious 
career, never desponding, and never giving over 
to despair 5 but offering them daily the shining- 
example of one to whom great obstacles were 
only incentives to greater exertion. 

It is saying but little, indeed, to say that few 
men could anywhere have been found adequate 
to such a position as that which he vokintarily 
sought. Few others could so long have held 



228 CAPT. JOHN .■v.IITir. 

together a colony of restless and ambitions njen, 
themselves nnited hy the bonds of no high and 
common motive^ and animated them with such 
sentiments as ho perpetually strove to awaken. 
His was a difficult task, to which there never 
could seem to be attached the least merely per- 
sonal reward. What he did, was done from obe- 
dience to his own inward convictions of duty. 
If he had impulse s, they set him forward on- 
the road of activity and progress. The results 
at which he aimed were in nowise either single 
or selfish. There seemed to be some secret ele- 
ment in his character, j^ushing him onward to 
unflagging effort for others, which he had it not 
in his power to overlook or disobey. 

And out of this obedience sprang that lofty 
and distinguished success of his, as the leader of 
the early settlement at Jamestown, which stamps 
him forever in the opinion of the world as one 
of its most shining characters. Though he made 
no wonderful discoveries of gold-fields, as had 
been at first anticipated, yet he opened to the view 
of mankind a field of soul, and mind, and native 
energy, whose extensive riches both surprised 
and charmed ovcr^' one who either heard or read 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 229 

of bis courageous exploits. The very savages, 
who at the first saw fit to hate and conspire 
against him, came finally to respect and revere 
his superior intelligence and power. From being 
enemies, he brouglit them OA^cr to be his allies. 
His continual self-possession they could not help 
admiring. To the freshness and energy of his indi- 
vidual will they made immediate and ready obei- 
sance. They sa^v in him what even the members 
of his own party were too blind themselves to 
discern, and in truth led the way before them 
in offering appropriate honor and regard to so 
noble and flowing a nature. It is exaggerating 
nothing to say that he was the soul and centre 
of the entire colony ; that his name fairly repre- 
sented every high and noticeable quality there 
was among the purposeless settlers ; that his 
energy, and his ingenuity, and his directing 
will, banded together all the discordant elements 
around him, and kept alive those sentiments that 
alone saved the enterprise from destruction ; 
and, finally, that he was the embodiment of its 
entire existence, and that but for him it must 
have fallen into dilapidation by the very force 
of its own unfortunate construction. This is 
20 



230 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

praise enough for Captain John Smith. It is 
praise enough for any man. 

Eight in the midst of his most self-sacrificing 
endeavors, however, the Enghsh government was 
joersuaded to grant another charter for the col- 
ony, differing very essentially from the one under 
which it held its present existence. It was ob- 
tained through the one-sided representations of 
such men as Captain Newport, and was more 
particularly aimed at the degradation of the 
brave man who had successfully carried the col- 
ony along to its present position. Lord Dela- 
ware became, therefore, the Captain- General ; 
and, among the inferior officers, occurs again the 
name of Captain Xewport. The project was now 
suddenly j^atronized by men of rank and wealth ; 
and as much parade was made over the appoint- 
ment of officers as if the feeble little colony had 
already grown to be a strong and mighty nation. 
It was as astonishing as it was laughable, to wit- 
ness the haste with which earls, and knights, and 
noblemen, all crowded into the enterprise, lifting 
it in popular opinion from the uncertain charac- 
ter that had hitherto attached to its name, to a 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 231 

height of favor that even came to be quite the 
fashion. 

Under the auspices of this new charter, which 
was granted in May, 1609, nine ships, with five 
liundred people on board, set sail from Eng- 
land in the latter part of the same month, fully 
equipped for an enterprise of such a notice- 
able magnitude. Three commissioners were 
appointed for the management of the new pro- 
ject, and for the more easy settlement of all 
irritating and vexatious questions that might 
arise in the progress of their designs. These 
commissioners were Sir George Somers, Sir 
Thomas Gates, and Captain Newport. It was 
an exceedingly foolish and short-sighted piece 
of management ; but the government placed in 
the hands of each of these three men a commis- 
sion, by the terms of which he who happened to 
arrive first in Virginia should take command of 
the colony in advance of the other two. Many 
a difficulty could have been readily foreseen 
under such an arrangement as this ; and it ap- 
pears that the commissioners themselves were 
not by any means blind to the dangers in their 
path. Tn order, therefore, to remove all obsta- 



232 CAPT. JOHN SMITH, 

cles out of their way^ they finally agreed to 
embark on board the same vessel, and set sail 
accordingly. The name of the vessel was the 
Sea Venture. ^Slie was separated from the rest 
of the fleet in a storm, and finally went to pieces 
on one of the Bermuda Islands, though the lives 
of the commissioners were providentially pre- 
served. One other vessel Avent to the bottom 
during a severe storm that overtook them on the 
voyage ; and the rest came into the Jamcr, River 
with all their creAvs and cargo in safet}-. 

As soon as they had landed they began to 
sliOAv out their real feelings towards the true 
leader of the colony. The three commissioners 
had not yet arrived, and for a long time after 
did not arrive ; and so the rest gave loose rein 
to the lawlessness that Avas their predominant 
characteristic. Many of them Avere broken-doAvn 
and profligate men, of no service at home, and 
eager to try any ncAV mode of life for a time, so 
it brought them a change. Such restless and 
imprincipled spirits as these Avere certainly the 
A\' orst possible stuff out of AAdiich to set to Avork 
and construct a colony of settlers. There Avas 
little or no manly virtue in them. They Avere 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 233 

led by no commanding motive in their newly- 
begun project, and of course could produce but 
little of that ripened fruit that grows out of com- 
prehensive aims and sturdy principles. Nothing 
in the world could have been more unfortunate 
for the comfort of Captain Smith than this most 
motley and improper acquisition of numbers to 
the yet feeble settlement. 

But he never repined. That he left for others to 
do, who had more leisure and less fortitude than 
he. Though he showed himself at all times glad 
to induct them into the secrets of good and pru- 
dent management, he saw that it was Averse than 
useless to thwart their desires, and accordingly 
gave them over to their own selfish gratification. 
A few of the older ones soon saw of wdiat value 
Smith Avas to the colony's existence, but their 
influence Avas not sufficient to control the \^oice 
or the action of the blind multitude. The latter 
Avere bent on going in their own Avay, and they 
Avould be sure in time to come to the brink of 
their oAvn destruction. 

Smith Avas yet the proper President. His 
power Avould not be superseded until the arrival 
of the three commissioners. Yet the lawless 
20-^ 



234 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

mob were unwilling to acknowledge his present 
authority, and prepared to set him at open defi- 
ance. Now they chose a governor out of their 
ow^n number, and now, in their wanton freakish- 
ness, they deposed him. Now they stood up 
for the virtue of the old charter, and now they 
changed face in favor of the new. They obeyed 
no authority, not even that which they saw fit 
to impose upon themselves. In such a state of 
affairs Smith gave over all hope of doing any- 
thing more for the colony he had nurtured so 
long, and expressed himself from his heart ready 
to return to England again, and leave them to 
their own pitiful fate. 

Then his nobler feelings roused themselves 
once more, and he could not help compassionat- 
ing the unfortunate innocent ones who would 
be made to suffer through the uncurbed passions 
of the rest. Some of the wiser and cooler heads 
came forward, too, to encourage him at so trying 
a crisis, and he rose in all the strength of his old 
energy to put down the rioters by the power of 
his individual will. The struggle w^as a serious 
one ; but it proved successful. He escaped from 
a multitude of alarming dangers, and threw the 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 235 

ringleaders of the revolt in prison. Immediately 
all the rest quietly acknowledged his authority, 
and acquiesced willingly in the healthy regula- 
tions which he imposed. 

Smith possessed most excellent tact ; and so 
he was awake to prevent the repetition of such 
trying spectacles. Accordingly, he proceeded 
to divide up the entire body of settlers into 
squads of a certain number each, and to scatter 
them about in the neighborhood of the settle- 
ment, where each man couM labor to the best 
advantage for his own subsistence. He sent 
West, with one hundred and twenty men, to 
establish a new settlement at the falls of James 
River ; and Martin he sent to a spot named Nan- 
semond, with as many men more. They were 
well provided with both food and imjDlements 
for labor, and ought to have secured at least 
a reasonable share of success for their under- 
taking. 

As soon as these peaceful relations were finally 
established, Captain Smith resigned his authority 
as President in favor of Captain Martin. The 
latter accepted the new responsibility, but almost 
as soon gave it up again, preferring to be at the 



236 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

head of his quieter colony at NanscmoDd. But 
he was not any more competent as a ruler over 
the latter settlement, than he would have been 
over that at Jamestown. He betrayed his ineffi- 
ciency at every turn. He dealt so unfairly with 
the Indians that they made a united assault on 
him, killed several of his men, and carried off a 
thousand bushels of corn. Smith sent a party 
to his relief; but he knew so little about pru- 
dent or judicious management, that, in his fear, 
he abandoned his settlement to its fate, and made 
the best of his way back alone to JamestoAvn. 

The little colony at the Falls was likewise 
deserted by West much in the same cowardly 
style. Captain Smith went over to take a survey 
of it, and met its leader in the act of returning 
to Jamestown ! The settlement had been im- 
properly located, in the first place, on the low- 
lands, and was liable to continual overflows from 
the river. Smith, therefore, at once proposed to 
remedy the fault. But he was met by their 
opposition and anger at the very threshold of 
his design. They charged him with wanting to 
move them aAvay from their present location, in 
order that he might himself obtain the gold that 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 237 

was buried in the soil beneath ! They were 
jealous of his authority over them at all, and 
seriously disposed to dispute it at every step. 
Captain Smith bore with them as long and pa- 
tiently as he could, and then made up his mind 
to use the old argument of main strength. He 
liad but five of his own men with him, while they 
counted a hundred and twenty. But this con- 
sideration did not terrify him at all. He pro- 
ceeded with his usual boldness, therefore, to 
attempt the arrest of the leaders of the mob, but 
without success ; their comrades rallied to pro- 
tect them. Seeing that nothing could be done 
in this manner, he betook himself to his boat 
again, and prepared to effect his object in another 
way. The vessel, containing a new supply of 
provisions for them, was on the way from James- 
town, and this he managed to surprise and take 
possession of; and, turning her prow back again 
in the direction she had come, he left the miser- 
able settlement to the repentance that proceeds 
from want and sober reflection. 

The vessel, however, happened to run aground 
some distance below the Falls ; and, while thus 
detained, the infatuated members of the little 



238 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

colony began to practise tlieir lawlessness upon 
the friendly tribes of neighboring Indians. The 
latter understood by this time that they and 
Captain Smith were not friends any longer, and 
now came forward with free offers of their ser- 
vices for Smith's assistance. By and by, as the 
frightened and scattered settlers began to ilock 
about the vessel, begging to be taken on board, 
or to be protected on shore from the terrors of 
their foe, Captain Smith availed himself of the 
Indians' assistance to some practical purpose. 
Calling in their timely aid, he made a sally upon 
the malcontents, captured some half-dozen of the 
ringleaders, and assured the settlement of its 
future safety by throwing them into close con- 
finement on board the vessel. Then he himself 
led off the remainder to the new location, which 
he had jDurchased for them, at the spot called 
Powhatan ; but in a very short time it became a 
place of so much pleasantness and beauty, that 
he gave it the new and quaint name of Nonsuch. 
When things began to go on smoothly. West 
returned to his little colony again. He had 
shown himself a mere coward, and destitute of 
any of the energy or manliness so much needed 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 239 

in liis new position ; but the instant he found 
that Captain Smith had made a smooth and pleas- 
ant path for him, baciC ho came to resume the 
authority he had so basely forfeited. It is the 
w^ay such men are apt to do. In danger they 
are w^hite with fear ; but w^here there is no 
cause of alarm they are the pettiest and mean- 
est tyrants in the world. West plead long with 
Captain Smith to release the leaders of the mu- 
tiny, whom he held in custody, and at last not 
without success. Captain Smith cared nothing 
for revenge, and had no object in view in their 
imprisonment but the highest good of the settle- 
ment ; and accordingly he consented to give the 
plotters of evil their liberty without any further 
protestations. Then he took his leave of the 
place altogether, and set out on his return to 
Jamestown. It is proper to add that, as soon as 
his personal influence ceased to be felt at Non- 
such, the foolish settlers once more abandoned 
the place in a body, and betook themselves to 
the locality from which he had just removed 
them. 

Smith was by this time beginning to be sick 
of making any further efforts for the comfort of 



240 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

disaffected and ungrateful men ; and it is not to 
be wondered at. He Avas all the while trying 
to accomplish something for others, and all the 
while opposed; and thwarted, and misrepresented, 
at every turn. None of them seemed capable of 
understanding a generous deed, or of appreciat- 
ing a noble thought. They referred all actions 
to their own low standard of selfishness or fear. 
Beyond this they did not seem able to look. 
Above this it appeared to be impossible for them 
to aspire. 

On his way down the river an accident oc- 
curred to Captain Smith, that for a time threat- 
ened to be serious in its consequences. He lay 
quietly asleep in his boat, enjoying the rest that, 
after his protracted trials, he so much needed. 
One of his men unfortunately set fire, in some 
careless way, to the bag in which he kept his 
powder, and an explosion immediately followed, 
that burned and wounded him most frightfully. 
Roused in this sudden manner from his sleep, his 
usual presence of mind seemed still to be about 
him. Quicker than it could be told, he jumped 
overboard into the water. The* flames that sur- 
rounded him were of course instantly extin- 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WOELD. 241 

giiished ; but, before his companions could re- 
cover him from the water, he was nearly drowned. 
He was still a great way from Jamestown, and 
in an open boat he must journey the rest of that 
long distance. His blistering wounds could not 
be dressed until he arrived there, and he was 
obliged more than ever before to fall back on 
those resources of fortitude and composure that 
had at all times been j)eculiarly characteristic of 
the man and his history. 

No sooner had he reached Jamestown, wound- 
ed, and disfigured, and crippled as he was, than 
he found himself called upon to forget his bodily 
sufferings, and turn his distracted attention to 
the evils that were fast overshadowing them 
all. The rebellious spirits, whom he had long 
ago arrested for their treason, had resolved to 
anticipate the result of their rapidly-approaching 
trial, by stirring wp greater prejudices than ever 
against their commander. Sick and dispirited as 
he was, he could not avoid seeing it all, or under- 
standing the necessity that lay upon him to pre- 
pare at once to meet such an emergency. But 
the base plot they had concocted revealed itself 
21 



242 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

before he had it in Lis power to avert its first 
approach. 

It was secretly resolved, among these wicked 
and desperate men, to procure Captain Smith's 
assassination. They dared not openly propose 
to get him out of their way. They had not 
the courage to accuse him boldly of any fault 
or crime with which they really thought him 
chargeable. Their manliness did not carry them 
far enough to either decry or defy him in the 
face of the whole settlement. But it was their 
policy, as it was their nature, to conspire like 
cowardly thieves and robbers, and to destroy 
like bloody and desperate assassins. There is 
quite that difference between men to-day. Hu- 
man nature has lost none of its wickeder traits 
by the passage of centuries. 

A fellow was accordingly employed to com- 
mit the murder for which these conspirators had 
not themselves the courage. It was arranged 
that he should arm himself with a loaded pistol, 
and proceed to the bedside of the weak and 
almost dying captain. Then ho was suddenly to 
discharge it at his head, and make tlie best of his 
escape out of doors. The conspirators promised 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE WORLD. 2-J:3 

to shield liim afterwards with the power of their 
influence in the settlement. 

But all human plans do not result according 
to the wishes of their projectors. Strange and 
highly unexpected interruptions occur to thwart 
their success at the ver}- last step sometimes of 
their progress. The villain held the pistol to 
the head of Captain Smith, and nothing remained 
for him but to pull the trigger before the poor 
man should pass into another world. But that 
sam-e little act was just what he could not bring 
himself to perform. Something mysterious pre- 
vented him. His heart failed him at the moment 
when his villany most needed that wicked heart's 
assistance. His malice softened. His passion 
died dov\ai in his breast. The weapon fell undis- 
charged and powerless at his side ; and the 
vanquished villain slunk away to repent of the 
murder that still fretted and festered his inhuman 
heart. 

Learning what ^vas about being done, and 
fearing for the final safety of the settlement and 
all it contained, a few of the wdser ones gath- 
ered immediately around the bedside of Captain 
Smith, promising devotion to him to the last. 



244 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

They were very anxious that he should give the 
word to them to go and behead the conspirators 
without further warning. They desired nothing 
but the favor of serving him in some such way 
as thiS; emphatic and final as it was. But he 
generously refused; and continued to persist in 
his refusal. Ho saw no good that could come 
of bloodshed ; and, if any such unfortunate event 
was to occur, he Avould much prefer himself to 
become its uncomplaining victim. 

Not one of his friends and followers but was 
deeply touched by these new proofs of Captain 
Smith's magnanimous devotion ; not one who 
did not himself see the great and constant 
sacrifices that he had been making, from the 
day when they all left the shores of England 
together, and that he was still willing to make 
to the latest of his days. If the many failed to 
appreciate his nobleness of nature, the chosen 
few did not forget to love and admire him all the 
more. Placing themselves in imagination in his 
own unhappy circumstances, they could readily 
see the trials and tortures through which his 
lofty spirit was called to pass : misrepresented 
before tlio o^overnment at home, envied and 



THE GRATITUDE OF THE V/ORLD. 245 

hated by the colonists whose very lives he held 
in his hand ; deprived of his legitimate authority 
by every new arrival of raw recruits, yet ex- 
pected to become law, and order, and all thmgs 
else, when danger and trouble might happen to 
overtake them in the riot of their follies ; his 
very energy mistaken for a selfish and merce- 
nary ambition, and his enthusiasm chilled by the 
plots and counterplots of a set of lawless con- 
spirators ; — what is the wonder that he grew 
tired at last of trying to do anything more for a 
crew of such thankless wretches, and that his 
heart pined for the home-land with whose free 
winds he had drawn his first breath ? 

He resigned his authority — what there was 
left of it' — into the hands of Mr. Percy; and, 
in the quiet autumnal weather of 1G09, sailed 
from the shores of Virginia forever. From that 
moment a blight seemed to fall upon everything. 
Misrule at once erected its crest triumphantly. 
The new settlements were both abandoned, after 
nearly half the men had been sacrificed. The 
colony had a multitude of Presidents all at the 
same time. The Indians saw that Captain Smith 
had gone, and cared little for those who remained. 
21^ 



246 CAPT. JOHls SMITH. 

There were wars and tumults on every hand. 
The sufiering soon grew past endurance ; and, 
out of a colony of five hundred persons Avho 
were left at Jamestown when Captain Smith 
took his final departure, there remained at the 
end of six months not more than sixty alive, to 
testify to the incompetence of jealous rulers and 
evil men. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LATER EXPERIENCES. 

CAPTAIN SMITH was back again in Eng. 
land. After safely going through such a 
long catalogue of dangers and trials, after 
carrying himself triumphantly in so many con- 
tests, and through so much opjDOsition, after 
spending his strength and his temper freely in 
the cause of weak, mercenary, and selfish men, 
he found himself once more on the soil of his 
birth, with a heart full of the strongest and most 
changeful emotions. Such an experience as his 
was not, even in that comparatively rude age 
of the world, vouchsafed to every man, however 
marked might be the qualities of his character. 

For a long time after his return he was obliged 
to seek repose and quiet. The nature of hia 
wounds demanded rest more than anything else. 
And that was what his overtasked mind would 



248 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

seem to need quite as miicli. He betook himself 
immediately to some out-of-the-way corner of the 
realm, and nothing seemed to have been heard 
from him for quite a number of years. It is 
known that his injuries were such as would re- 
quire many years to rej^air them, for his friends 
even continued to despair of his life a long time 
after his return. 

But, low as he was brought in point of phys- 
ical strength, his mental vigor remained almost 
unaffected through the whole. He even began 
to plan a course of study and reading for him- 
self during his confinement, so loth was he to 
lose any of the valuable months that were rap- 
idly rolling away. He was determined to be 
industrious to the last. The neglect of his 
youthful opportunities for learning he now re- 
solved to make some sort of amends for. It 
was not too late, he thought ; it would never bo 
too late. And so he set himself about his self- 
imposed tasks, writing as he studied, and perse- 
vering until he discovered that, from being a 
bold adventurer, he had at length become quite 
an industrious and prolific author. Among the 
productions of his pen were several scraps of 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 249 

verse, written on various occasions^ and adapted 
to a variety of subjects. Ho likewise published 
a map of Virginia, together with a faithful ac- 
count of the country and its people. This was 
during the year 1612. 

Two years later, after having been quiet in 
England for a term of five long years, his spirit 
began to grow uneasy for the excitement of 
fresh adventure. During his retired and un- 
noticed stay in England he had chiefly occupied 
himself with reading works of travel, and enter- 
prise, and discovery ; and now he felt himself 
moved a thousand times more deeply than ever 
to attempt some new and daring project, that 
would be likely to fill the ear of the world with 
his fame. He would not return to Yirginia, for 
there was nothing to call him there. Both 
people and rulers had shown him the deepest 
ingratitude, and his spirit revolted at the thought 
of again connecting himself with them, or their 
crazy fortunes. • 

All the country and coast that lay to the north- 
ward of Yirginia was at that time called North 
Virginia. To some spot along this extended 
coast he now proceeded to direct both his own 



250 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

attention and that of siicli merchants of London 
as would listen to him. Already the then organ- 
ized Plymouth Company had sent out a colony, 
that settled and remained for a whole winter 
somewhere upon the bleak shores of Maine ; but 
the country was so wild and uninviting to the 
settlerSj that they speedily returned home, satis- 
fied with the dearly-bought experience of a single 
winter. In a short time, however. Captain Smith 
persuaded a few men to undertake a new expe- 
dition, along with himself; and, in April, 1614, 
he sailed with his little j^arty in two ships from 
the wharves of London. 

The ostensible object of the expedition was 
not to begin and colonize any part of the new 
coinitry toward wliich they were bound, but to 
search after mines of the precious metals, to 
capture whales, and to procure fish and furs. 
It was a sort of rude venture in the way of seek- 
ing their fortune. If one thing failed them, it 
was arranged to fall back upon another. They 
arrived out, but too late for the whaling season ; 
so they set themselves to work to catch fish; 
and in about one month Smith, with seventeen 
others, caught some sixty thousand codfish. 



T.ATER EXPERIENCES. 251 

After tliisj taking eight men along witli Lim in an 
open boat, he passed from one tribe of Indians 
to another on the coast, and succeeded in pro- 
curing from them, in the way of trade, ten thou- 
sand beaver-skins, besides a large number of 
both otter and martin. MeanA^dlile, he kept his 
pen busy with his paper ; first he drew a rough 
chart of the coast he had explored ; next he 
wrote an account of all its peculiarities and its 
people ; and, finally, by way of setting his seal 
to both the chart and the chronicles, he bestowed 
on the country the name of New England ; and 
that will, beyond all doubt, continue to be its 
name while the world stands. It may not be 
so generally known, but it is, nevertheless, an 
authenticated fact, that to Captain John Smith, 
the settler of Jamestown, and the real founder 
of Virginia, belongs the honor of having given 
its distinctive name to that tract of our country 
which so many people love and revere as New 
England. 

In six months from the time he set sail from 
London, he Avas back there again with one of the 
two ships that had formed the expedition. The 
other Captain Hunt was to take to Spain, in 



252 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

order to find a market for the fisli. But he was 
an unprincipled rascal ; as soon as he found that 
Smith had gone, he enticed over twenty poor 
Indians on board his vessel, and carried them off 
by force to Malaga, where he sold them all as 
slaves. Of course the money he received for 
them he put into his own pocket, thinking, 
probably, that his inhumanity was a wonderfully 
shrewd stroke of policy. But all men do not 
happen, fortunately, to measure merit by the 
standard of mone}^. 

Captain Smith made a present of his map and 
description of the New England coast to the 
young Prince Charles, who was afterwards King 
Charles the First. Immediately, therefore, the 
name that Smith had given to the country was 
adopted, and he was himself honored with the 
title of '' Admiral of New England." So that, 
from the simple rank of captain, our hero now 
found himself raised to the condition of an 
admiral. It was at most but an affair of words, 
however, and nothing but a mere child was at 
the bottom of it. Equal importance is not at- 
tached to such affairs now-a-days. 

When he returned again some of the friends 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 253 

of the old Plymouth Company employed him to 
aid the projects that they entertained. Of course, 
therefore, he was very free in imparting infor- 
mation to them respecting the country he had 
just come from. Some of them were dishonest 
enough to use it for the furtherance of their own 
interest, and after that to set the man, whom they 
had pretended to employ, adrift. They promised 
him a command, to be sure ; but he never re- 
ceived it, for all that. They j)ut him off from 
time to time with false hopes, and finally disap- 
pointed him altogether by sending off four ves- 
sels in command of another person, leaving him 
unprovided for. All that the Company seemed 
to want was to draw out of Smith Avhat his per- 
sonal experience could teach them, and then 
they were wihing to let him go. Besides this, 
it was a purchase of his silence. They knew 
that so long as he was in their employ he was 
not the man to communicate his valuable secrets 
to others. 

Disappointed so deeply in this, he was not yet 
cast down. That Avas a mood to which he was 
not accustomed. He happened to have some 
two hundred pounds at his control, and this he 

90 



254 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Avas willing to make a beginning with. Gather- 
ing together what friends he was able, he made 
out to obtain and equip a couple of small ves- 
sels for his project, one of them being of two 
hundred tons' burden, and the other of but fifty. 
It seems really strange, to reflect on these things, 
and see what great results flowed out of such 
seemingly insuflicient beginnings. 

In March the two vessels, containing sixteen 
persons, who went out as permanent settlers, set 
sail from Plymouth. When not more than three 
hundred miles from land they were separated in 
a tempest. The vessel that Smith was in lost 
her masts, and they were obliged to work back 
their way into port by the help of such devices 
as their ingenuity could supply. The men were 
kept Avorking at the pumps continually. It was 
needless now to think of reembarking in what 
there was of that vessel, and so another, of but 
sixty tons, was secured. In June he set sail 

ir 

once more. 

First he encountered a pirate ship. Smith 
prepared to fight them, though the men were 
for anything rather than risk a contest. The 
pirate happened to be an Englishman. When 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 255 

the other vessel came near enough, the sailors 
on board immediately recognized Captain Smith, 
and begged that he would come over to them 
and take command. There was a mutiny on 
board, and they had confidence in his power to 
put the disorder at rest. But he refused to have 
anything to do with them whatever. He had had 
as much acquaintance with mutinies, and revolts, 
and disorders, as he desired. 

Pretty soon afterwards he fell in with a couple 
more pirates. These Avere both Frenchmen. The 
place where he met them was in the vicinity of 
Fayal, which is one of the Azores. The pirates 
were of much greater force than himself, and 
had it in their j)Ower to capture and destroy 
him. At once Captain Smith, however, called 
his men to arms, determined on making as stout 
a resistance as he could. But the m.en were 
cowardly, and refused to obey, slinking away to 
various parts of the vessel in terror. Smith's 
usual energy came to his relief at the moment, 
and he seized a firebrand, and threatened to light 
the powder-magazine and blow them all up to- 
gether, unless they came forward to the defence 
of their vessel. The threat had its desired 



256 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

effect. They seconded Lis daring efforts with 
liearty good-will ; and, while pouring in shot 
upon his enemy, and so keeping them at a dis- 
tance, Smith succeeded in running off the vessel 
and making his escape. 

But that did him little good, after ah. li was 
no better than jumping out of the frying-pan into 
the fire. For, ver}- soon after, he fell in with a 
fleet oifour vessels of war, all Frenchmen, whose 
admiral hailed him, and summoned him on board 
his ship to show his papers, or the authority 
under which he sailed. The French men-of-war 
were at that time cruising in quest of pirates 
and Spanish vessels. Smith easily proved that 
he Avas neither. But the laws of nations were 
not as accurately defined, or obeyed, then as 
they are now, in respect to each nation's right 
to traverse the high seas, and the French admiral 
proceeded to gratify his own individual feelings 
in disposing of the stranger. Smith was imme- 
diately made a prisoner on board. His vessel 
was seized, and robbed of all she carried. And 
his men were, like himself, thrown into confine- 
ment, and there kept for several days. 

Finally, Smith had his vessel restored to him, 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 257 

as if tliey thouglit they had tormented him 
enough. His men were hkewise sent on board 
after him. Provisions were allowed them, and 
they were making preparations to renew their 
voyage. But now a new freak seized the Frencl^. 
commander. He desired Smith's company once 
more on board his ship. The latter obeyed, 
leaving; his men behind. While he was detained 
on board the Frenchman, a strange vessel hove 
in sight. Instantly the French vessels put chase 
after her. Smith had to go too, and thus was 
he separated from his vessel and his men alto- 
gether. It was of no sort of use for him to 
protest ; his words would not have had the 
weight of a feather. His own vessel made its- 
way back to Plymouth, and he was left to fare 
the best way he could. 

All summer long he was kept a prisoner, cruis- 
ing- with his captors wherever they went. For 
the most of the time they were in the vicinity 
of the Azores, however, seizing upon whatever 
prizes happened to come in their way. And 
some things that were not altogether lawful, 
Smith says were done as v/ell. 

But during his confinement he did not suffer 



258 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

himself to be unemployed. He took pen and 
paper, and proceeded to write down a complete 
history of his former New England expedition 
from the beginning to the end. Every partic- 
ular that had not at the time escaped his close 
observation ho committed to writing with due 
faithfulness and perspicuity. When his captors 
were about to fight a Spanish vessel, they gave 
him his liberty, and accepted his assistance, which 
he was not unwilling to render against the com- 
m.on enemy ; but, when they were about to 
attack an English vessel, they were careful to 
keep. him concealed below. 

They promised him his freedom, at length, in 
return for the services he had rendered them 
while a prisoner ; but the joerformance of the 
promise was deceitfully put off from one time to 
another, till he was finally carried into the har- 
bor of Eochelle. There he was charged with a 
crime on the coast, of which he was entirely 
innocent, and for this kept in close confinement 
until the charge could be investigated by the 
Admiralty Court on shore. 

He saw by tliis time that he had little or noth- 
ing to hope for at their hands. Ho knew that 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 259 

this was to be the last step in their criminal 
design, and that it was their intention now to 
make a sacrifice of his hfe at the earliest con- 
venient hour. There Avas still one single way 
by which he could bring all their counsels to 
naught. That was by escape. And he forth- 
with set himself to work and planned the time 
and the means by which he was to secure his 
release. 

There came a very dark night, so dark as to 
render every object invisible. It had just begun 
to clear away after a violent storm. Still the 
rain pelted the watch vigorously, driving them 
below for shelter. Smith took advantage of the 
fortunate occasion, stole a boat belonging to the 
ship, and cut himself loose. He had nothing 
like an oar on board, and was obliged to giy 
himself up entirely to the drifting of the waves. 
Instead of passing to a little island 'near by, as 
he had hoped, he discovered that he was floating 
out to the open sea. The wind was high, the 
waves were tempestuous, the rain beat down 
upon him without mercy, and he gave himself 
up at length for lost ; every moment he was 
expecting to go to the bottom. But, after an 



i 



260 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

exposure of tliis kind for twelve long hours, and 
after being distracted almost with the fears and 
anxieties that continually beset him, the tide and 
the wind changed together, and by a kind for- 
tune his boat was carried high and dry upon the 
muddy shore of a little island. The next day, 
as he himself tells it, he was picked up by ^^ cer- 
taine fowlers, neere drowned and halfe dead with 
w^ater, cold, and hunger." As a recompense for 
their cruelties, the vessel, from which he so for- 
tunately made his escape, parted from her cables 
in the same storm, and w^as driven ashore ; and, 
in the darkness of the night, and the confusion 
and terror of the hour, the captain himself was 
drowned, and half his piratical crew with him. 

Captain Smith made proper complaint of his 
treatment to the authorities. They promised to 
make an examination into the affair, and after- 
wards did so ; but the power of the Englisli 
government was but feebly felt or recognized in 
France, in those days, and he naturally failed to 
obtain the redress he sought. Had it not been 
for the kindness of a few friends who had be- 
come deeply interested in his story, it would 
have gone extremely hard with him to keep 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 261 

body and soul together. There was a generous 
French lady , who befriended him in his need, and 
whose sympathy for him was only equalled by 
her respect. Her name Avas Madame Chanoyes, 
and she lived in Rochelle. She assisted him, as 
he confesses himself, " bountifully." 

As soon as he could he set off again for Plym- 
outh. He went through a great deal of dispute 
and contention there with the men who had 
first sailed with him, and sought to procure their 
punishment for the desertion of which they were 
guilty. But he accomplished little or nothing 
by his endeavor. There seemed really to be 
no power to mete out punishment as it was 
deserved. 

By this time the value of the cod-fisheries 
along the New England coast began to be under- 
stood. Captain Smith had led the way, and made 
the earliest venture ; others were now crowding 
forward to avail themselves of the riches of 
his experience. Multitudes of vessels were got 
ready in great haste, and the returns from the 
ventures immediately became enormous. Smith 
tried to obtain assistance in making another trial 
himself. But to no purpose at all. He, the orig- 



262 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

iiial antlior of others' fortunes, was left poor and 
unnoticed ; while those others, who timidly fol- 
lowed after his lead, had not the manliness or 
the sense of justice either to confess their obli- 
gations to him, or admit him to a share of the 
profits to which his finger alone had pointed 
them. 

Unable to effect anything in the direction he 
wished, he sat down again with his pen, ink, and 
paper. At once he produced a book entitled 
" New England's Trial." It was little more than 
a record of his own rough and changeful expe- 
riences. The book was published in the year 
1C16, and he determined that it should have the 
benefit of a wide circulation. Accordingly, he 
set out with it himself, taking a large number of 
copies along with him. Pie travelled all over 
England. It was not much like the style in 
which authors scatter their volumes in iJieoe 
days ; but, still, it was a very resolute under- 
taking for a person living in the times of Captain 
Smith, when King James was the ruler of Eng- 
land, and but four or five years after the Bible 
was finally translated into Englisli. He gave 
aioay thousands of copies to the merchants of 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 263 

London, hoping to interest them in the subject 
over which his thoughts were brooding all the 
time. But his persevering efforts brought him, 
unfortunately, no return. Few listened now to 
what he had to say. He v/as esteemed a man 
who had had ill-luch ; and, with the commercial 
world, that was quite enough to condemn him. 
He was even taunted with his misfortunes, as if 
it had been in his pov/er to prevent them ; and 
this is the noble reply he made once for all to 
such mean taunts : " Some fortune-tellers say I 
am unfortunate. Had they spent their time as / 
have done, they would rather believe in God 
than in their calculations.'' There certainly is 
something far above the r.each of mercenary or 
cowardly minds in this brief speech ; for it pre- 
supposes that every living man is sent into this 
world w4th a particular mission ; and that, if he 
fails not to perform this mission, every purpose 
of his earthly existence has been fully answer ed; 
no matter if he live and die poor, no matter if of 
no consideration at last among his fellowMnen, 
no matter what the fate or the fortune of his 
merely temporal and perishable interests, he has 



264 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

done his work, and bis removal is never to be 
deplored or regretted. 

The reply showed Captain Smith to be a phi- 
losopher. 

He continued to stay in England now alto- 
gether. Disap]Dointed in his plans, deserted of 
his wealthy and influential friends, spurred con- 
tinually with desires that he was not able to 
gratify, beholding his fame fading out of the 
eyes of men until other generations should step 
forward and rescue it from forg-etfulness, — he 
passed the coming years in patience and reflec- 
tion, hoping the best things for the new country 
to which he had been an early and courageous 
pioneer, and calling down Heaven's richest bless- 
ings on the colony that had proved an ingrate 
to his warmest affections. 

In the year 1622, the Indians in a body set 
upon the colony at Jamestown, and j^ut to death 
about four hundred of the settlers. It was a 
terrible blow to the hopes of the Company in 
England, and came very near exterminating the 
settlement altogether. Immediately the project- 
ors of the colony at home had recourse to Cap- 
tain Smith, to bog to know wluit should be done 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 265 

in such an emergency. He made tliem a pro- 
posal to go and defend the settlement agamst 
any future attacks that might occur. But they 
could come to no agreement about it, and the 
project accordingly fell through. Captain Smith, 
however, still felt a. deep affection for the col- 
ony, and learned of its fearful disaster with a 
sad heart indeed. A commission was not long 
after appointed to inquire into the causes of this 
misfortune at Jamestown ; and to this commis- 
sion lie directed a letter, explaining what, in his 
view, the occasions of the real troubles were. 
In the course of his statement, which is a pat- 
tern of frankness and candor, he says, among 
other things, that five whole years, and more 
than five hundred pounds, had been spent by 
himself in setting on foot the Virginia colony, 
and nearly as much more in the New England 
enterprise ; that, for nineteen years, he had la- 
bored according to the best of his industry and 
ability, in leading forth, watching, and caring for 
the settlements in America ; and yet, he adds, 
for all that, in neither of the two countries did 
he own so much as a foot of land, nor even the 
house that he had built, nor any part of the 
23 



266 . CAPT. JOHN SMITPI. 

ground he had hoed and planted with his own 
hands. That did not give him the least sort of 
trouble, however. What made him the most 
anxious and unhappy was, the contentions and 
divisions that were rapidly ruining the prosper- 
ity^ of Virginia, and that would ruin it, unless 
some remedy should be applied immediately. 

The commission of inquiry called Smith before 
them, and had a number of questions put to him 
concerning the management of affairs in the col- 
ony. He was prompt and candid in his answers, 
and evidently satisfied them of what they were 
not so Avell apprized before, namely, the utter 
inefficiency of the officers of the company. He 
finally told them that the direction of the affairs 
had much better pass into the hands of King- 
James than remain where it was then ; and, in 
obedience to his suggestion, during the year 
1624, and the last year, too, of the reign of King. 
James, the charter was taken from the hands 
of the Company, and all the powers of the co- 
lonial government reverted to the king. The 
latter appointed, through a special commission 
entrusted with the business, a Governor and 
twelve Councillors for the management of the 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 267 

Tirginia coIoi\y^ and then, for a time, the troubles 
in some degree ended. 

Yet no offer of patronage was made to him; 
lie, who had been both the leader and father of 
the little settlement in the far-off-wilderness, Avho 
had passed through the baptism of both lire and 
blood for the sake of the love he bore it, who 
had freely given up, and was still willing freely 
to give up, all that he had, and Avas, and ever 
expected to be, in the service of the plan and 
the people that lay even now so close to his 
heart, — lie was wilfully and wrongfully slighted 
at the time when royalty should never have 
been forgetful of his own invaluable favors, 
and left to pine, and despair, and die, without 
assistance, without sympathy, and even without 
friends. 

He was denied the gratification of his most 
earnest desire, which was to visit the shores of 
the New World once more ; but that did not 
prevent him from speaking and writing contin- 
ually in favor of the country on whose broad 
soil the richness of his manhood had been so 
unselfishly exhausted. All the time he was 
active with both pen and tongue, inciting others 



268 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

to take the step that he was denied tlie great 
privilege of taking himself. He set before them 
the advantages of the new country persever- 
ingly. He published a work, as late as the year 
1626, entitled the '^ General Historie of Virginia, 
New England, and the Summer Isles, with the 
names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Gov- 
ernors, from their first beginning, An. 158-4, to 
the present, 1626." Then, in 1630, he published 
another work ; the title of this was, '^ The True 
Travels, xldventures, and Observations, of Cap- 
tain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
America, from 1593 to 1629 ; together with a 
continuation of his General History," etc. And 
the next year he wrote yet another book, called 
" Advertisements for the unexperienced Planters 
of New England, or anywhere ; or the Pathway 
to Experience." And immediately after this he 
set about writing a " History of the Sea." He 
had but well begun it, Avhen his busy hand 
stopped on one of its early pages. Death over- 
took him in the midst of his labors. 

It was in the year 1631 that he Avas taken 
away, and when he had attained the age of but 
fifty-two years. Nothing seems to be known of 



LATER EXPERIENCES. 269 

the manner or the circumstances of his death. 



more than that it occurred in a very obscure 
quarter of London^ and that the hands of strang- 
ers, and not of friends, closed his dying eyes 
forever. 

His had been a chequered, and a most roman- 
tic Kfe, full of variety, and crowded at all points 
with excitement. He had gone through trials 
from which most men would have instinctively 
shrunk in fear, or in which they would have 
sunk down with exhau'stion. His was a brave, 
fearless, and noble nature. There was no taint 
of meanness about his garments. There was no 
lack of true and lofty manhood within his soul. 
Though he possessed an ardent and exceedingly 
impulsive temperament, yet it was so steadily 
lield in check by the strong hand of his reason 
and better judgment, by iha tough cords of his 
patience and forbearance, that, as a whole, his 
character presented to the view the perfect 
shape of a circle, fully developed and expanded 
at all points, and in all directions. He did the 
work that he came into the Avorld to do ; and 
then his day of usefulness was spent, and his 
time of departure had come. And just then, 



270 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

in truth, the summons did come for him, and he 
passed away from the world, leaving the rich 
memory of his deeds as a towering monument 
for his name forever. 



CHAPTER XIII 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 



AFTER Captain Smith had taken his last 
leave of Virginia^ the government of 
the colony presented a medley character 
enough. There seemed to be nothing bnt a 
continual change of rulers. One gave place to 
another, and those who retired soon resumed 
their places again. There was no fixed princi- 
ple by which they were willing to go at all. 
They behaved more like restless children, with- 
out purpose or aim, than like sober and serious 
men, planting the seeds of a mighty empire. 

From the beginning of this state of things 
the Indians gave them trouble. In fact, they 
did not know how to manage the Indians, so as 
to keep on terms of friendship with them. It 
w^as very unfortunate, but they ascribed it all to 
the wildness of the savage nature, unable to see 



272 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

any fault in tliemselves. They burned the Indian 
villages, and the Indians retaliated with aroused 
fury. Powhatan began to change his opinion of 
the whiteS; and his friendship for them showed 
symptoms of decay. Pocahontas^ too, had be- 
come less and less dear to his paternal heart, as 
he saw the real worthlessness of the people for 
whom she had so many times interceded, and 
now she had left his hut altogether, living un- 
known with friends elsewhere. She had lost her 
influence over her father, and so kept herself out 
of his sight. She very well understood the vin- 
dictiveness of his character, and dreaded his 
displeasure exceedingly. 

Captain Argall, the commander of one of the 
vessels of the English, learned where she was 
concealed, and, in order to secure her as a pris- 
oner for himself, offered tempting bribes to the 
old Indian and his vv^ife who had her in their 
keeping. They were, at length, prevailed upon 
to bring her on board his ship one day. Poca- 
hontas herself was not altogether willing to go ; 
but tlie wife of the old Indian said that she had 
never seen one of the vessels of the pale-faces, 
and thus persuaded her to accompany them. 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 273 

As soon as she was fairly on board the vessel, 
she Avas enticed by one pretext or another down 
into the gun-room ; and then she was told that 
she was a prisoner. She threw herself on her 
knees, and besought, with tears running freely 
from her eyes, that they would not detain her 
there against her wish. She plead in accents of 
tenderness and pity, that should have moved a 
heart of stone. She rehearsed her own acts of 
generosity to the whites, by the means of which 
they were many a time saved from bloody mas- 
sacres and total extermination. But her sylla- 
bles fell on ears that were deaf. Her petitions 
failed to reach the heart — if heart he really had 
— of her triumphing captor. The old Indians, 
who had betrayed her, pretended to feel quite 
as bad as she did, and went about howling and 
crying in the most hypocritical way one can 
imagine ; but Captain Argall made them a pres- 
ent of a nice new copper kettle pretty soon, and 
they were set on shore as happy as tw^o wicked 
old rogues ever were in the world. Pocahontas, 
then, it appears, was sold for one copper kettle ! 

The object of the mean captain was to obtain 
liberal gifts from Powhatan^ by way of ransom 



274 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

for his daugliter. Immediately, therefore, he 
sent word to him how the case stood. A mes- 
sage was likewise sent him, that his daughter 
could not be released until he should give up all 
the weapons that he or his people had in any 
way obtained from the English. Powhatan was 
deeply grieved to hear of the imprisonment of 
his daughter, but still was unwilling to pay the 
price demanded for her release. He sent seven 
English prisoners to Captain Argall, with as many 
poor guns ; and promised that he would make a 
treaty of peace with the whites, and pay over 
five hundred bushels of corn besides, if Pocahon- 
tas were set at liberty. 

But that was not what was wanted. His offer 
was refused with contempt. Once more he was 
told that he must give wp all his arms, if he 
would ever see his child again ; but he made no 
answer to the message whatever. Pocahontas, 
therefore, was kept in as close confinement as 
ever. Her brothers were once permitted to see 
her; but the interview led to no new arrange- 
ment for her freedom. 

It was during this period of her imprisonment 
that a well-born English gentleman, named John 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 275 

Rolfe, became deeply attached to her, and finally 
offered her his hand in marriage. She was about 
eighteen years of age. The tender sentiment 
was cherished no less by herself than by him, 
and she gave herself to him to be his wife. 
Powhatan was sent to, for the purjDose of obtain- 
ing his consent to the match, and did not refuse 
it, either. He was invited to the marriage festiv- 
it}^ himself; but he felt rather unwilling to trust 
himself with the English, after knowing how his 
own child had been served, and was content to 
deputize one of the bride's uncles, and two of 
her brothers, to witness the ceremonies in his 
stead. This romantic event in history occurred 
in the spring of the year 1613. It resulted in 
averting some of Powhatan's hatred from the col- 
onists, and for a time led to an agreeable truce 
in their prolonged warfare. A tre^y was soon 
after entered into by both parties, and the former 
friendships were speedily resumed. 

Sir Thomas Dale was at that time governor of 
Virginia, and this is a portion of a letter that he 
wrote from Jamestown to England, on the 18th 
of June, 1614: 

" I caused to be carefullv instructed in the 



276 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

Christian religion Powhatan's daughter, Avho, 
after she had made such progress therein, re- 
nounced pubHcly her country's idolatry, openly 
confessed her Christian faith, was, as she desired, 
baptized, and is since married to an English gen- 
tleman of good understanding, — another knot 
to bind the knot the stronger. Her father ^nd 
friends gave approbation of it, and her uncle 
gave her to him in the church. She lives civilly 
and lovingly with him, and, I trust, will increase 
in goodnesse as the knowledge of God increas- 
eth in her. She will goe into England with mee, 
and, were it but the gaining of this one such, I 
will think my time, toile, and present stay, well 
spent." 

Governor Dale grew still more overbearing, 
after a while, and despatched a messenger to Pow- 
hatan to demand of him his other daughter ; say- 
ing that Pocahontas greatly desired the company 
of her younger sister. This was the message, sub- 
stantially, sent to Powhatan : " His brother. Hale, 
had heard of the fame of his j^oungest daughter, 
and intended to marry her to some worthy Eng- 
lish gentleman, which would be highly pleasing 
and agreeable to her sister, who was very desir- 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 277 

Oils to sec and have lier near lier.'" Powhatan 
evaded the demand on him as long as he coukl, 
and at length answered to the messenger as fol- 
lows : " That he held it not to be a brotherly 
part to endeavor to bereave him of his tw^o dar- 
ling children at once ; that, for his part, he de- 
sired no further assurance of Dale's friendship 
than his promise ; that, of his ow^n, the English 
had a sufficient pledge in one of his daughters ; 
which, as long as she lived, would be sufficient ; 
and, should she die, then he should have another. 
Tell him further,"' added the aged Indian chief, 
^'that, even if there were no pledge, there need 
be no fear of me or my people. We have had 
enough of war. Too many have been slain already 
on both sides. With my Avill, there shall be no 
more. I have the power here, and I have given 
the law to my people. I am now grown old. I 
would end my days in quietness and peace. My 
country is large enough for both ; and, even 
though you give me cause of quarrel, I will 
rather go from you than fight with you. Take 
this answer to my brother." 

The youngest child was not obtained, as Dale 
had unfeelingly designed ; and, it is by no means 
24 



278 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

to be supposed; either, that her sister Pocahontas 
had anything to do Avith furthering- so wicked a 
]Aot, even if she were privy to it at alL 

Pocahontas herself appeared to enjoy her new 
relation, and her new associations, as much as 
might have been expected. She soon after mar- 
riage received the rite of Christian baptism, 
taking the name of Bebecca. Immediately on 
receiving this new Christian name, her friends 
disclosed the real one by which she was know^n 
among her own people. It was Matoaka. The 
reason why it was so long kept a secret from the 
whites was, the Indians had a peculiar supersti- 
tion, called the superstition of the evil moiUh; 
just as they likewise had one called the supersti- 
tion of the evil eye. The meaning of it was, that 
the speaking of one's real name by some lips, 
like the gazing upon one by some eyes, would 
not fail to result in evil ; as if some persons 
were capable of holding a fatal spell over others, 
from which it was impossible for the latter at all 
times to escape. Hence another name was given 
to this Indian damsel, and her own was buried in 
secrecy. If the whites pronounced the word 
Maioakaj she might receive great harm ; but 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 279 

Pocahontas was a name they might take upon 
their lips with freedom and impunity. 

Governor Dale finally sailed for England with 
Pocahontas and her husband, in the spring of 
1616, taking with him several other natives of 
the forest likewise. Powhatan was not able to 
have a parting interview with her before she 
left, on account of intestine wars that greatly 
disturbed his peace. He was now an old man, 
and ill able to endure the trials or reverses that 
years before he would have met willingly. Ope^ 
chancanough was directing all his efforts to the 
succession, ambitiously plotting in every way to 
secure his claim to the imperial command. Poav- 
hatan had a brother who stood in the way of this 
design, and that was the only serious obstacle 
that offered. 

When Pocahontas — now Mrs. John Rolfe — 
reached England, there were crowds of people 
to run and welcome her arrival. The story of 
her life, and of her generous sacrifices for the. 
English, had long before been told through the 
length and breadth of the land. The more culti- 
vated classes were especially attentive to her, 
waiting upon her wherever she went. People 



280 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

of rank ofiered Iier tlieir liospitalities, and 
seemed to feel even grateful for the privilege 
of entertaining a princess. 

Captain Smithy as soon as he happened to hear 
of her arrival 7 sat down and wrote a letter to 
the queen, soliciting most earnestly whatever 
favors her majesty might feel willing to bestow 
on this child of the forest. He recounted to her 
the many valuable services of Pocahontas for the 
colony, dwelt feelingly and eloquently on her 
numerous high qualities of mind and heart, spoke 
of her recent conversion to the same Christian 
religion Avhich the queen professed, and wound 
up his humble application by reminding her 
majesty that this was the first time he had 
himself ever asked a favor from the throne, and 
promising her that it should be the last. The 
last expression in it was, " And so I humbly 
kisse your gracious hands.'' 

The consequence was that Pocahontas was 
very soon after received at court, and instantly 
rose high in royal favor. King James, it is said, 
was very indignant with Mr. Rolfe for daring to 
marry with ro7jal blood, he being himself only a 
gentleman. It was then, as it is oven now, es- 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 281 

teemed a high misdemeanor for a common person 
to connect himself^ or herself^ by marriage with 
royalty; and, considering the narrow mind of 
King James, and the bigotry and prejudices of 
his time, it is not a little to be wondered at that 
the venturesome husband of Pocahontas came 
off with so much as a whole skin. 

Smith had an interview, soon after he Avrote 
his letter, with Pocahontas, at a village a few 
miles distant from London. He was very much 
reserved, if not distant, in his manner toward her, 
Avhilc she Avas all ready to throAv. off the reserve 
she had thus far been compelled to wear since 
her arrival, and Avould gladly have rushed into 
his arms. But his seemingly cold manner chilled 
her. She thought he had lost all his affection for 
her : when the truth really Avas, that Captain 
Smith, Avell knoAving the king's peculiar notions 
respecting the formality due to royalty, was un- 
Avilling to betray any single feeling on his part 
that Avould be likely to injure her in the estima- 
tion of the throne. Yet she could not under- 
stand his motive at all. His manner grieved her 
deeply. Captain Smith's account of the inter- 
vicAv Avas, that, ^^ after a modest salutation, Avith- 
24- 



282 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

out any word she turned about and obscured her 
face, as not seeming well-contented." No one 
knew her real feelings at that moment of disap- 
pointment. She had certainly thought to find 
at least one friend in England, and she had found 
him ; but how strangely different was the greet- 
ing, after so long an absence, from what her heart 
had been fondly anticipating ! 

But this coldness and reserve wore off after a 
little while, and they entered into conversation 
with one another very freely. Among other 
things that Pocahontas said, she took occasion, 
in calling up former days, to speak of her devo- 
tion to the English, and especially to himself 
She said to Captain Smith, — 

'^ You did promise Powhatan that what was 
yours should be his ; and he made a like promise 
unto you. You, being in his land a stranger, 
called him father; and, by the same right, /will 
call you so." 

Captain Smith at no moment could keep King 
James' prejudices out of his mind, and began to 
explain to her that she, being a king's daughter, 
could not well call him father. But to such 
objections as this she would not listen. ^^ Were 



POCAHONTAS A WIPE. 283 

you not afraid to come into my father's country/' 
said she, "and cause fear in him and all his people 
but myself, — and do you fear that I should call 
you failier here ? I tell you that I ivill call you 
father, and you shall call me child ; and so shall 
it be forever. They did always tell us that you 
were dead, and I knew not otherwise until I 
came to Plymouth. Yet Powhatan believed it 
not, because your countrymen will lie mucJi^ and 
he commanded Tomoccomo to seek you out, and 
know the truth." 

Such is Captain Smith's account of the ending 
of that interview. Others followed from time to 
time, each one of which yielded both parties 
more happiness than the former. 

Pocahontas was making ready to return to 
Virginia in 1617, having been absent about 
three years in England, when she was suddenly 
overtaken by sickness, and not long afterwards 
yielded up her beautiful spirit. She died a 
peaceful and happy death, preserving her sweet 
resignation and composure to the very last. 

Only one son was the issue of her marriage, 
whose name was Thomas Rolfe. His uncle Henry 
gave him a good education in England, and ho 



284 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

subsequently emigrated to the native land of his 
mother, and there established a wide fame, and a 
vast fortune. He, in turn, left onl}^ a single 
daughter, at his decease, and from her have 
sprung many of the oldest and most respectable 
families in Virginia. John Randolph of Roanoke, 
the eccentric statesman, was always proud to 
trace his descent from Pocahontas, esteeming his 
own a highly noble birthright. 

Pocahontas died early in the year 1617, and 
the next April her father followed her. It was 
said that he grieved incessantly for her loss, and 
probably grieved himself out of the world. 

Opechancanough tried in every way to obtain 
the power that had fallen from the Indian emper- 
or's shoulders ; but the brother of the latter was 
still living. Opechancanough, however, easily 
found means to destroy his authority ; for he 
was but a feeble person at the best. Besides, 
Opechancanough Avas highly j^opular with all the 
tribes, and could move them altogether by the 
power of his w411. It was he Avho caused the 
rising of the Indians upon Jamestown, in 1622, 
when some four hundred of the settlers were 
slain; and later still, in 1639, his bold spirit 



POCAHONTAS A WIFE. 285 

excited the tribes to another ontbreak, when 
more than five hundred of the whites were the 
victims of a general massacre. He was a greater 
ruler than Powhatan had been, possessing more 
comprehensive powers of mind, and more thor- 
oughly enjoying the reverence of his follower;^. 
But he showed the approaches of old age at last, 
and his faculties began gradually to fail. 

At length he became too feeble to walk with- 
out assistance. The savages were obliged to 
carry him about in their arms, as if he had been 
an infant. His body was very much wasted, and 
his eyes were so weak that they were not able 
to support even the weight of the eyelids ; so 
that, when he wished to open them, some one 
was obliged to lift the lids with his fingers. 

Sir William Berkeley was then the governor 
of Yirginia, and he managed to capture the old 
chieftain while in this feeble and unresisting 
condition. He thought it would be a grand 
thing, therefore, to make a sort of exliihition of 
him. So, one day, the old man was brought out 
into the presence of the multitude. When G-ov- 
ernor Berkeley came near, he desired that ]iis 
eyelids might be raised. Looking the governor 



280 CAPT. JOHN SMITH. 

tlieii boldly in the eye, lie exclaimed, '' Had Sir 
William Berkeley fallen mjj prisoner, I should 
not thus meanly have exposed him as a shoAv to 
my people.-'' It loas a mean thing, and totally 
unworthy the spirit of any one who presumes 
to call himself a onaii. But a still meaner and 
crueller thing was speedily to follow. While 
thus gazed upon by the English in their place 
of public assemblage, a monster deliberately lev- 
elled his gun, and shot the defenceless chieftain 
through the back ! It was as base and wicked 
a murder as any that stands recorded in history, 
and may well terminate a long list of mean and 
unfeeling acts, that dated back even with the 
early landing of Captain John Smith upon the 
Bhores of Yirginia. 



